Telangana’s new textbooks to drop Andhra Pradesh

Hyderabad: Textbooks based on the new Telangana curriculum will go to print in mid February after final approval from Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.

Sources privy to the curriculum revision process informed that all references to Andhra Pradesh have been deleted from the social sciences and literature texts.

The drafts will be shown to the Chief Minister by this month end for his suggestions after which the final version will go to print.

In its poll manifesto, TRS had promised that the geographical, cultural and literary aspects of Telangana would be incorporated into the school curriculum.

As reported in these columns earlier, the TRS government had directed the curriculum revision committee to delete all references to Andhra Pradesh.

Official sources informed that the directive has been stuck to and changes have accordingly been made in the texts of all classes.

However, textbooks of Class IX and X may not be changed now considering continuity issues. A decision on this will be taken by the chief minister.

The major changes are in social sciences, which includes history and Geography, and Telugu, which includes literature.

History will only be focussed on Telangana with hardly any references to Andhra Pradesh. It also contains chapters about the Asaf Jahis and rulers prior to that.

Sources said there are only passing remarks about the Nizam, which are also quite neutral. “The Nizam did some good things and some bad things. The texts only contain facts which are very neutral,” sources said.

Geography will also be wholly about Telangana and will not have any specific reference to Andhra Pradesh. The texts do have chapters on the overall geography of the country, which will be continued as they are obviously with changes in the maps.

“Everything about Andhra Pradesh has been removed. There is nothing at all about the neighbouring state. Geography will only be about Telangana.

In Telugu, all Andhra poets or chapters about them have been removed and Telangana literature is substituted,” sources said.

Telangana State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) director S. Jagannath Reddy said, “The work on the curriculum is almost complete. Education minister Jagdish Reddy will show the revised texts to Chief Minister between January 27 and 31. 

His suggestions will also be incorporated and by February 15, we expect printing to begin.” It remains to be seen how the Chief Minister reacts to the changes.