The Ministry of Education has taken steps to remove several school textbooks related to Islam with immediate effect.
The Sunday Times reports that the textbooks for grades 6, 7, 10 and 11, which have been distributed among children, have been removed by order of the Special Presidential Task Force on One Country One Law and the Institute of National Defense Studies affiliated with the Ministry of Defense.
These school text books have been published in Sinhala and Tamil languages. Commissionor General of Education Publications Mr. Ileperuma has instructed to stop distributing these books to school children and to take steps to revise and redistribute the textbooks that have been distributed, the newspaper reports.
According to the Commissioner General of Educational Publications, the books were recalled after the Presidential Task Force and the Center for the Study of National Security pointed out that they contained some content on Islamic extremist ideology.
The Commissioner General of Educational Publications has stated that no major changes should be made to the books and that these shortcomings can be rectified by making only minor changes and that they will be repaired and distributed among the children as soon as possible.
The Department of Educational Publications had earlier appointed a special committee in this regard and a number of Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim members representing the field of education were represented on the committee.
The report prepared by them will be handed over to the two donors involved in the preparation of these school text books.
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