‘Nothing wrong should be taught to school students’

Rajasthan education minister Govind Singh Dotasara spoke on the revision of school textbooks in an interview to

Sachin Saini and Nikita Bishnoi.

Edited experts:

You have changed content on VD Savarkar; what other changes are likely to be seen in the new textbooks?

Right after the model code of conduct ends, meetings with the officials will be held. Only then will we take the report from them and will be able to tell the kind of changes and the reasons behind them.

The previous government introduced topic on demonetisation in textbooks? Will that stay?

It depends upon the committee which has been constituted for the review. There was no instruction from the government. The only thing which the government instructed is that the stories of bravery of army men who died in the Pulwama terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir should be included in the syllabus.

The BJP government also introduced content on Modi government policies in the syllabus. Will all that stay in next textbooks? Or will that be removed or revised?

You see policies are made daily and changed daily. Demonetisation which was the most unsuccessful of all and people even died standing in the queues. Will we ever teach such things to our children? The things which are good and motivational for allround development of a student will only be included. Unlike BJP, we will not teach anything for our political benefits.

Referring to the changes made in the textbooks, BJP says that VD Savarkar has been insulted by the Congress. What do you have to say about it?

Since 1947, Savarkar came only in 2016 in the syllabus. They also have no backing or solid proofs for whatever they have written in the books. They only wanted to glorify their government so that the RSS should be happy with them and therefore they included whatever they desired in the syllabus. We however told the educationalists that they should have proofs of whatever they write in the syllabus. If Savarkar might have written mercy petition four times, we have mentioned it. We could have removed it but our government included what is right.

How much money was spent on the changes made in the syllabus.

BJP spent nearly Rs 175 crore in 2016 when it changed the syllabus. However, we have not spent even 5% of that amount. Therefore, BJP saying that the existing books will be in vain is not justified. Nothing wrong should be taught in schools.