Following the publication of the Preamble of the Constitution on the cover page of a Class 10 school textbook allegedly without the words 'socialist' and 'secular', the Telangana State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) got involved into a fresh controversy.
The SCERT, however, maintained that the error occurred due to oversight.
The matter came into light after the Telangana State United Teachers' Federation (TSUTF) submitted a representation to the secretary of education department on Thursday complaining about the words being missing from the preamble.
However, the Preamble, including the two words, was published in the pages inside class 8 and 10 social studies books, it said.
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What did the teachers' federation say?
The incident surfaced at a time when there is a debate "across the globe" that secularism was in danger in India, the publication of the old Preamble "the way some people want it" instead of the one that is in force gives rise to several doubts, the Federation claimed.
The Federation urged that the correct Preamble be published and sought tough action against those responsible for wrongly publishing the Preamble, after conducting an inquiry.
What did the SCERT say?
Following the eruption of this new controversy, SCERT said the error was inadvertent.
"This happened by oversight and unintentionally while downloading the image at the time of designing the cover," the SCERT Director said.
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"The error crept in inadvertently," the Director said.
According to a communique, the official directed all the District Educational Officers (DEOs) to download the image of the Preamble (amended) furnished by it and have it pasted on the cover page of the Class 10 Social Studies textbook.
"Therefore, all the District Educational Officers in the state are informed to instruct all the Headmasters/Principals of High Schools under all managements to ensure that the image of the Preamble (amended copy) is pasted on the Class X Social Studies textbook, supplied to the schools immediately, duly submitting the compliance report to the SCERT, Telangana without fail," the Director said in it.
