Uttar Pradesh: Textbooks cause rage

Lucknow: The textbooks in schools in Uttar Pradesh are emerging as the main reason for the growing aggression among children.

A study conducted by Lucknow University’s department for women’s studies has found that 13 out of 42 books from classes I to V, being prescribed in government and private schools, had one or more instances depicting aggression.

For instance, a Class IV textbook Kalrav prescribed in government schools, shows an elderly gentleman beating a male child.

An English textbook prescribed in a private school shows boys bullying girls.

In yet another example, the Class IV Hindi textbook Nav Nidhi has a chapter titled Chitrakoot Mein Bharat, which shows a young man behaving violently with an elderly woman.

In the History book of Class V of the government schools, chapters based on writers, freedom fighters, revolutionaries, and reformers are centered on men and only four women are included.

An English textbook prescribed in a private school shows boys bullying girls.

The study has thrown up some more interesting facts. More than 80 per cent teachers, when asked to name their parents, gave the names of only their fathers and when the same question was put to the children, 80 per cent took the names of both their parents. This indicates that the mindset of teachers continues to suffer form a gender-bias.

The study further fou-nd that a large number of teachers still believe that women are most comfortable with cooking as a profession. Psychia-trist Dr P.K. Tiwari said, “If a child sees and reads about aggression, he or she will imbibe  it. Textb-ooks should be revised under the supervision of psychiatrists.”