Srinagar: The study material with hilarious translations has been distributed to government schools in the Ganderbal district which has left the stakeholders surprised. The move has raised questions over the quality check of the education department on the content provided to the school children.
Over the years, the School Education Department (SED) has roped in several Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) with a motive to improve the academic standards in government schools and enhance the reading and learning ability among school-going children.
From last many years, the SED has roped in Pratham- an innovative learning organization, created to improve the quality of education in India.
The organisation holds teacher training and also provides study material to the students to improve their academic standards. As per the officials of the education department, the study material provided to the students not only improves their academic standards but also keeps teachers updated with the new pedagogical techniques used for teaching students.
However, the organisation has come under severe criticism after the students in government schools of Ganderbal district received study material with erroneous translations. The incident took everybody by surprise as to why such material was distributed among the school children without doing a proofreading of the content.
On Wednesday, a picture of one page of the study material, with hilarious translation of names of objects from English to Urdu went viral on social media. To cite an example, the urdu translation of “Auto” is written as “Octopus” while the urdu translation of Aeroplane is written as “Magarmach” which in English means Crocodile.
Such translation of words from English to Urdu has raised questions over the proofreading and quality check maintained by the department. “It is surprising how such content was distributed among students without going through it and checking it properly,” a parent said.
An official functionary of Pratham, when contacted , said the mistake had been committed by the people who were concerned with the printing of the content.
“Someone has mistakenly printed the wrong file as the material was distributed to DIET Ganderbal after we conducted a content review workshop with SCERT in December 2022. The content was reviewed properly and the material was distributed after proper check,” the official said.
He said the files available with Pratham are flawless and updated as well. “It is beyond our understanding how such a blunder has happened. We cannot commit such a blunder. Our material was properly checked. We will still take up the matter with the concerned authorities to ascertain who is actually responsible for this mistake,” the official said.
The Pratham official also shared the actual file of the study material titled “Just Play” wherein no mistake was found in the content in terms of the translation of the objects and animals from English to Urdu or Hindi language.
Director School Education Kashmir (DSEK) Tasaduq Hussain Mir was not available for his comments on the issue. An official at District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) Ganderbal told Greater Kashmir that the matter is being looked into.