CHENNAI: With the Supreme Court ordering implementation of the Uniform School Education System for Classes I and VI this year, the government has ordered more than a dozen changes to be made in the Samacheer Kalvi books, before they reach the students for the academic year. These include changes either in the form of tearing off pages, blackening the content with a permanent marker, or sticking a sheet of paper over the content found objectionable for no stated reason. A circular, said to be on behalf of the Director of Elementary Education, has been distributed to schools across the state on Friday, carrying in detail the pages that featured deleted content and the mode to do away with them. All elementary education officers have been ordered to enforce these changes. Six pages have been ordered to be removed in all in the Tamil and English books for class I, while for class VI, at least 10 changes have been prescribed, according to a teacher in a city school not willing to be named. The teacher also clarified that government teachers have been entrusted with the job of enforcing these changes in the books, which are expected to reach students across all districts by Wednesday. For Class I, the portions required to be torn out include a song which lists the Tamil calendar beginning with the month Thai, instead of the traditional month Chithirai.Among those to be blackened by a permanent marker are references to the efforts of DMK leader M Karunanidhi in getting Tamil its classical language status in 2004 (Social Science book, page 84). Instructions to remove a diagram of a magnet’s North and South Poles using the colours red and black (Science textbook, page 81) have also been included in the sheet. The Director of Elementary Education was not available for comment.
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