NCERT textbook peddles false info on Meghalaya

SHILLONG, July 20: The Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) Northern Border Area on Wednesday filed an FIR against the authors of a school textbook for claiming that the official spoken languages of Meghalaya are Bengali, Nepali and Marathi instead of the indigenous Khasi or Garo.
The KSU Northern Border Area filed the FIR at Khanapara police station in Ri-Bhoi against the authors of the Social Studies textbook – Dr Dhananjay Joshi and Neelam Jain regarding the ‘misinformation’ in the book which was approved by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
The book was published by Bright Star Books International, 521-Vasant Kunj, New Delhi-110070.
The matter came to light after photographs of the page containing the misleading information and the front cover of the textbook was widely circulated on the social media on Wednesday.
In their FIR, the KSU claimed that Little Star Senior Secondary School, 9th Mile, Baridua, Ri-Bhoi, was using a textbook of Social Studies in Class III, which contained the wrong information.
Stating that the information in the textbook indicates that the official languages of Meghalaya are Bengali, Nepali and Marathi instead of the local languages Khasi and Garo, the KSU said the misinformation in the book may lead the students of the school and other schools of the state to gather wrong information about the state.
The KSU urged the police to initiate legal action against the authors and the school authority.