'Socialist', 'Secular' missing from Preamble on textbook cover in Telangana

SCERT Director M Radha Reddy said a copy of the original Preamble was published on the cover page of Class 10 Social Science textbook 'by oversight'

The State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) in Telangana has landed in a controversy after the cover page of the latest Class 10 Social Studies textbook carried an image of the Preamble without the words ‘socialist’ and ‘secular’ in it.

The textbooks were distributed on June 20 as part of the ‘Telangana Education Day’ celebration.

A Social Studies teacher said, “A lesson on the Constitution is part of Class 8 and Class 10 social studies syllabus. While the image of the Preamble of the Constitution in the inside pages has the words, ‘Socialist’ and ‘Secular’, it is the cover page that has such a grave mistake.”

The words, ‘Socialist’ and ‘Secular’, were added in the Constitution in 1976 through the 42nd amendment.

M Radha Reddy, Director, SCERT, said that a copy of the original Preamble was published on the cover page of the textbooks.

“This happened by oversight and unintentionally while downloading the image at the time of designing the cover,” Reddy said.

Reddy said that the error crept in inadvertently.

Chava Ravi, secretary of the Telangana State United Teachers’ Federation (TSUTF), asked how the publisher could erroneously publish an old image of the Preamble without any checks and balances.

Ravi said, “I feel some persons, advisors, and authors of the textbook did it intentionally. The SCERT director has told us that it was not intentional and the image was downloaded from Google. We need an investigation.”  

The TSUTF has now registered a complaint to the secretary of the school education department and the SCERT director.