Indian textbooks have been making news for all the wrong reasons lately. Our education system is so badly disturbed that the knowledge it gives through books is unjustified.
Yes, we are living in a strange world that a textbook that’s supposed to teach children how to protect the environment has decided that the best way to figure the difference between living and non-living beings is by conducting a very strange experiment.
Taking a dig at this, Farhan Akhtar, who has been quite vocal about the alarming issues in our country, pointed out the blunder in a Class IV science textbook on twitter which went viral.
Farhan said: “This. Is. Just. Unbelievable.“ His tweet also shows a snapshot of the experiment mentioned in the textbook.
This. Is. Just. Unbelievable.
From a Class IV textbook on Environmental Studies. Anyone responsible for this reaching the kids desks? pic.twitter.com/NJ2FWkwO0O— Farhan Akhtar (@FarOutAkhtar) February 9, 2017
The Rock On actor’s tweet has since collected lots of comments from tweeple.
The book explains a bizarre experiment to differentiate between a living thing and a non-living thing, where a kitten eventually dies in the end.
Read the Experiment here:
“Take two wooden boxes. Make holes on lid of one box. Put a small kitten in each box. Close the boxes,” the exercise reads. “After some time open the boxes. What do you see? The kitten inside the box without the holes has died.”
Two illustrations are also included alongside the experiment. The first shows a kitten which appears to be alive, while the second is a drawing of a seemingly dead cat.
Farhan isn’t the first person to tweet about this textbook and experiment. On February 2, Twitter user Lola Kuttiamma also shared her disbelief at finding the experiment in the book.
This experiment is a part of the 4th grade curriculum in a reputed school in Delhi. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?! pic.twitter.com/g6dwHNWqAD
— Lola Kuttiamma (@Priya_Menon) February 2, 2017
After images of the book were shared on social media, people questioned how such an experiment was included and thrashed the education system:
This is absurd. Literally teaching kids how to kill a kitten.
— Sara Naveed (@SaraNaveed) February 9, 2017
Someone pointed out the book:
it’s a class 4 ES book, CBSE!
— Sachin Bangera (@Sachbang) February 9, 2017
But, fortunately, a Twitter handle has conveyed this issue to Maneka Gandhi and we wish this experiment gets excluded immediately:
Friend has already reached out to Maneka Gandhi pic.twitter.com/RL1zkdCgHM
— Lola Kuttiamma (@Priya_Menon) February 2, 2017
What’s your take on this? Let us know your views in the comments section below.