Telangana to erase Andhra Pradesh history from school text books

Hyderabad: There will be no references or chapters on Andhra Pradesh in the new curriculum for schools in Telangana. 

The Telangana government wants all chapters related to Andhra history or culture to be deleted from school textbooks. The government has formed two committees to review the syllabus for social studies and Telugu and add Telangana centric chapters. Officials said this will not affect students in examinations since each state prepares its own question papers. 

The existing curriculum also has very little reference to other states in the country and many Telangana writers and poets say that it is loaded with literature from Andhra region, while that from Telangana has been stamped upon and completely eliminated. 

It is learnt that education minister G. Jagdish Reddy has already told the committees to remove Andhra related material and said that anything related to history of Andhra or literature by writers and poets from Andhra should not be present in the curriculum. 

“Instructions are very clear. Nothing related to Andhra’s culture or history should be there. Everything should be from Telangana’s perspective. Obviously references will be there in some parts but anything exclusively about Andhra region is to be removed,” a senior official said. 

S. Jagannath Reddy, director, State Council of Educational Research and Training said, “For instance, if there is a chapter related to some poet from Andhra, it will be removed and Telangana related coursework will be added. 

The government also does not want the curriculum to be inflated to include aspects related to both states. TRS election manifesto also promised that the history and culture of Telangana will be included in school text books. “We can expand that course work but exactly what to delete and what to add will be decided once the committees meets. We will hold workshops,” Jagannath Reddy said.