ZAKIR Hussain looked edgy, probably because of lack of sleep, when a customer entered his bookstore in a sub-urban locality in Lahore on a scorching June afternoon. The customer was looking for a copy of the Class VIII geography book published by the Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board (PCTB).

“It is out of stock,” he replied, curtly. Then, adopting a politer tone, he said: “What’s the use of buying that book now? The government is already retrieving it [from the market and the schools], no?”

The printing of Pakistan’s map showing Punjab’s Seraiki belt and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Hazara region as two separate provinces on the back cover of the geography book for private schools in Punjab has triggered a controversy of sorts and raised questions about the PCTB’s competence in developing error-free textbooks.

Another map inside the book shows Azad Jammu & Kashmir as disputed territory.

While most PCTB officials term the printing of the map a “human error”, both the Shahbaz Sharif government and PCTB managing director Nawazish Ali suspect that it could be ‘mischief’ to ‘discredit’ the government and the board management.

The board has already fired two of its officials — the illustrator and the assistant subject specialist — blaming them for the error while a high-level investigation is still under way. The chief minister has also sent a request to the Lahore High Court chief justice for a judicial probe to uncover the truth. He has also ordered withdrawal of books with the wrong map from the market and from schools. This decision provoked pro-Seraiki province forces to stage a protest outside the National Press Club early this week.

“These inquiries will be just a waste of time; there is nothing to be found out,” a PCTB official told Dawn on the condition of anonymity. “Such errors happen owing to the prevalent ad hocism and favouritism at the board. If anyone thinks that such mistakes and errors will not be repeated in future after the probe into the printing of the wrong map, they are grossly mistaken.”

Initially, the PCTB boss was not prepared to speak on the issue.

“The matter is now being investigated by a high-level inquiry committee. When the committee gives its findings, you will know what has happened,” he said, when contacted for his point of view on the matter.

But later he agreed to give his version.

“I cannot believe that such an error could take place. The book went through the checking process six times before the final approval was given. None of the six people from the artist to the subject specialist to the [PCTB] director humanities spotted the error,” he said. “We print 200 copies of the textbook [every year]. Nothing has ever happened. Something is wrong this time that needs to be figured out.”

The first print run of 151,000 copies with the wrong map was put on sale in March for the new session beginning in April. While the PCTB managing director says the error was spotted only in the first week of last month when an Urdu-language newspaper ran a story about it, others say the wrong was righted in the second print run of 150,000 copies.

Now the PCTB plans to retrieve all the books within the next 10 days, according to the PCTB boss, and replace them with error-free copies through a special school-to-school campaign to be launched with the help of district education officers.

But most board officials don’t think the campaign will succeed at all. “The book was meant for Urdu-medium private schools. I do not think the board can replace the earlier edition three months after the start of the session,” a PCTB official, wishing to remain anonymous, said.

Amir Riaz, who twice undertook content analyses of the textbooks published by the PCTB in 2007 and 2014 and has done a comparative review of all the education policies the country has ever developed, thought that the board’s entire mechanism for developing and scrutinising the content of textbooks was flawed. “If you go through a textbook, you will be disappointed to find how the facts are misstated, information hidden and history distorted. I won’t say that the authors do it intentionally — although you cannot rule out the possibility. But it definitely means that the process of development of textbooks is full of flaws,” he said.

According to him, the poor quality of textbooks betrays the government’s lack of interest and focus on education, especially public education. “Unless the government puts in place an effective mechanism for conducting an independent third-party audit of all textbooks every year, such mistakes will continue to happen,” Amir concluded.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2015

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