Imphal, February 05: BSEM clarifies, refutes charges: The Board of Secondary Education Manipur (BSEM) while acknowledging certain printing mistakes, that evaded the scrutiny of experts, had crept in during preparation of text books for classes I-V strongly refuted charges that the books are filled with errors.

Barring some minor mistakes, that could be corrected while teaching the lessons, describing the whole contents as unacceptable requires deeper introspection from those hurling the charges, said BSEM Chairman Salam Nabachandra during a press briefing at the Conference Hall of the Board today.

Board Secretary RK Radhesana, Joint Secretary Ph Nandakumar Sharma and the text book writers were also present on the occasion.

Nabachandra said instead of making baseless allegations without perusing in detail on the text book content, prepared with minute consideration to make the nascent mind grasp the meaning easily, suggestions to improve the syllabus and broaden the knowledge of the young minds would be most welcome.

Prohibiting text books procured from outside and pointing out only some 'minor' mistakes printed locally to portray the whole exercise as unacceptable is too harsh for anyone whose intention is considered as working in the interest of the student community, regretted the Chairman.

Clarifying on charges of below standard, he said as the syllabus have been prepared under NCERT's "national Curriculum Framework for School Education 2000" with adaptation of certain section related to Manipur.

If the allegation hold any water it is akin to describing the NCERT syllabus as below standard, he claimed.

Citing time constraints, Nabachandra said experts got only around ten days to prepare the text books with due approval of the State Govt.Moreover, non-cooperation of some printing press who initially accepted the assignment only to express inability has also hindered preparatory work resulting in the mistakes, he informed assuring rectification/replacement in the next publication.

Leave the chapter arrangement to the teachers as the matter had been minutely discussed by the reviewers, said the Chairman clarifying on accusation on the matter.

Referring to repeated mention box item (note) on page five of mathematics subject, he confessed frequent mention of the 'note' should have been deleted with the only mistake of the writers being late detection.

Nabachandra, however, affirmed that the mistake has been deleted in Manipuri edition of the subject.

Rejecting demand for replacement of 'a' with 'the' while describing 'pumpkin' 'cabbage', 'brinjal'...

in the same subject, he questioned the authority of the accuser while confidently reiterating that except for minor printing mistakes no flaws could be pointed.

The Chairman also supported use of the word 'save' in English medium of class V's environmental studies contending the word gives equal emphasis on saving lives from natural and man-made hazards.

He nevertheless acknowledged detection of wrongs in usage of coma, full-stop, dash etc attributing the error to time constraints.

Differences in opinion should not lead to the perception that the hard work and dedicated service of the writers is a futile exercise.

Referring to accusation of mistakes in Manipur subject prescribed for class IV, Nabachandra while accepting non-detection of spelling pronunciation said there is no reason to make a hue and cry on the text contents.

Strongly rejecting the claims from certain sections on inadequate explanation, he said attempts were made and clearly evident that students were informed on not only principles of natural objects like the Sun.

Moon, sunrise, sunset etc but also extended to guide the students to follow a principle of truth taking a cue from the natural objects.

The Chairman further maintained emphasis were laid to make the young minds understanding objects through illustration with drawings and the Board does not consider as logical demands for exhaustive explanation that would rather act as a deterrent and burden for the unsettled minds of class IV students.

Poetry section makes no sense : DESAM: Continuing its �mission� of finding more errors in the text books prescribed by the SCERT for students, the Democratic Students' Alliance of Manipur today said that the English text book prescribed for Class V does not conform to the needs of society.

Picking out the poetry section of the text book, the student body in a statement today said that the poems do not reflect anything about the land but instead concentrates on the writings of English and American poets which will only confuse the little minds.

The preface to the text book also says that it will give a taste of the English language to the young children, said DESAM and added that nothing could be more far fetched than this.

The student body explained that it would be counter productive to teach the children that what matters is the English or American experience and added that history is proof that the world experience is not solely about the experience of the Englishmen or the Americans.

It would have been so much better if only the poems written by the native poets were translated and taught to the young children, observed DESAM.

Going to the prose section, DESAM said that in lesson number 3, the status of women in Manipuri society has been given a wrong interpretation as one of the protagonists of the story, Lila was described as having done all her household chores including cooking before going to her natal home for Ningol Chakkouba.

Such teachings will only reinforce the many misconceptions of womanhood, said the student body and added that the story which said that Lila was married to the �lone male heir of the family,� which is undoubtedly a rich family, gives a distorted view and interpretation of the status of women.

Going to lesson number 6 of the text book which deals with the Nupi Lan, the student body said that nothing clear is said about who the women were revolting against.

This is a serious shortcoming as it could confuse the tender mind, said the statement and added that history should be treated delicately as it is very much needed to expose the young minds to the past.

Again in lesson 11, the text book depicts a poor family and explained that the family is poor because of the huge family, said DESAM and added that such a story could have far reaching negative results as the young children can come under the impression that a huge family is the root cause of all poverty.

On the other hand, human resource is an asset, said the student body.

DESAM also lambasted the story on Hijam Irabot stating that no mention is made of against who the leader revolted and why.

Moreover the statement that Irabot died of Malaria in Burma on September 26, 1951 is yet to be substantiated.

Such distortion of history can do nothing positive for the young students, it held.

AMSU against wrong text books: Taking note of the errors pointed out by DESAM in the text books prescribed for students, the All Manipur Students' Union today said that under no circumstances should error filled text books be taught to the students.

In a statement, AMSU said that it has always been opposed to any kind of education that does not go well with the climate and reality of the land and added that it is also looking into the matter.

The BSEM should immediately look into the matter and see what corrective measures can be taken up, said the student body.

AMSU suggested a review committee may be set up to see what corrective measures may be taken up at the soonest possible.

The student body further said that it will oppose any designs to re-impose the old syllabus by some interest group who are out to serve their own selfish ends.

MSF urge for cooperation: Regretting that previous forecast of Manipuri Students' Federation (MSF) that hastiness in preparing text books would be filled with errors has been neglected, the student body called upon all specially the intellectual circle to contribute their mite in rectifying the flaws.

An MSF press statement also flayed a particular student organization for maintaining a muted stand on the present controversy regarding detection of mistakes in the Board of Secondary Education Manipur prepared text books for class I till V.Even though the MSF's aspiration for a common syllabus for all the schools by the 2003 academic session materialized the product is nauseating as several mistakes were found in the text books, reminded the release.

Taking advantage of the then prevailing situation, a student body pressed the State Government to discard the whole syllabus and the present scenario resulted in an even more worse situation as educational institutes have opened classes with students facing the dark prospect of having to procure the error filled text books, lamented MSF.

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