George Floyd Impact: Bengal school book relates dark-skinned man as 'ugly', teachers suspended
Kolkata/IBNS: While the United States is roiled by a wave of anti-racism protests over the death of Black man George Floyd in custody of police, a government-aided school in India's West Bengal state drew flak for using a dark-skinned man's photo in its text book to describe the word "ugly", reports said.
Amid the global outrage over racism and treatment of Black people in USA, the matter in East Burdwan district came into light when a section of parents of Burdwan Municipal Girls' High School's pre-primary section protested against it.
They demanded an immediate withdrawal of the controversial book.
"We're shocked after noticing that my child's basic text book, which will help to build the pillars of her future, describes a dark-skinned man as 'ugly' which is clearly a lesson of 'racism'," father of a student of the school told IBNS.
"We protested against it as we don't want to make our children 'racist' in future," he added.
When the Teacher-in-Charge and head-teacher of the school were asked about the matter, both condemned the matter and denied their responsibilities in selecting such 'racist' basic text book.
Later on Thursday, West Bengal school education department intervened into the matter and suspended both the Teacher-in-Charge and the head-teacher.
Reacting on the issue, state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said, "After being informed that a book, which is not approved by the state education department, was being used by Burdwan Municipal Girls' High School to teach the students of its pre-primary section, we are suspending the school's Teacher-in-Charge, Barnali Das, and head-teacher, Srabani Mullick."
"To ensure that no government-run or government-aided school in the state can use the book— Child's Study which is written by Ruma Roy and published by The Bani Prakashan— to teach their students in future, we are issuing a notification today," Chatterjee added.
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