A day after setting up of a six-member expert panel to look into Sikh history book issue, Punjab Government on Tuesday decided to hold back further release of Class XII history textbooks till the Oversight Committee examines the same and decides on the way forward.
Announcing this, an official spokesperson pointed out that following the Chief Minister’s decision to set up the six-member Oversight Committee, headed by eminent historian Prof Kirpal Singh, it was felt that it would be better for the panel to undertake a review of the book before its further release.
The Punjab School Education Board has also been directed to facilitate the committee for completing this task at the earliest.
Besides Prof Kirpal Singh, the committee comprises former vice chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University Prof JS Grewal, former pro-vice chancellor of GNDU Prof Prithipal Singh Kapur, emeritus professor of History at Panjab University Prof Indu Banga, besides two eminent historians to be nominated by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC).
The committee has been mandated to consider and report on the recommendations of the Expert Group constituted by the PSEB in 2014, to review the changes made in the new History syllabus prescribed for classes XI and XII subsequent to the recommendations of the Expert Group, and to suggest corrections, if any.
The Committee has also been asked to examine the contents of the textbooks prescribed for Classes XI and XII and to suggest corrections for factual and other errors, if any, and to align, as may be practicably possible, the History syllabus with that prescribed by the NCERT.
Apart from these, the committee has also been directed to exercise oversight over the syllabus and contents of textbooks prescribed for History for all classes in the Punjab School Education Board and to ensure that there are no factual discrepancies.