June 4, 1981, Forty Years Ago: Textbook Review

All textbooks will be reviewed to make sure that they promote national integration and do not militate against national unity. History and language textbooks are likely to be reviewed first. The review will be under the overall guidance of the Centre with the guidelines been prepared by the NCERT. This was one of the major decisions taken at the state education minister’s conference in Delhi on June 3. The resolution which was adopted unanimously said that the review must be undertaken on a time-bound basis so that the textbooks can be corrected before the 198-83 academic year. S B Chavan, Union Education Minister, said that the task will be undertaken by state-level review committees consisting of experts.

Assassins Nabbed

Six of the killers of Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman were arrested from Chittagong on June 3. They are army officers of the rank of major and captain. Meanwhile, the Bangladesh army has intensified combined operations in Chittagong to flush out an estimated 3,000 rebels. About 4,000 rebels have surrendered.

Beirut Violence

Syrian troops are engaged in an intense artillery battle with Christian militiamen near the besieged eastern city of Zahle after midnight shelling exchange between the Israeli gunboats and Palestinian guerrillas in North Lebanon. Cinemas, nightclubs and schools remained closed in most parts of Christian East Beirut.

A Dire Diagnosis

The World Bank, in preparation for the consortium meeting on June 9 and 10 says that after fairly rapid growth with plentiful resources in the last half of the ’70s, India is entering the 1980s on uncertain terms with resource constraints. It faces infrastructural and supply constraints whose resolution requires making domestic investments.