"Distorted" history protest prompts investigation

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 February 1999, 18:23 GMT]
The Ministry of Education and Higher Education has called for a full report from the National Institute of Education into allegation made by the Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union (CTTU) that the Year 6 Tamil text book on Social Studies consists of articles distorting the history of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

On Friday evening (12.02.1999) the General Secretary of the CTTU, Mr.T.Mahasivam met the Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education at the latter's office in Colombo and submitted a memorandum demanding the withdrawal of the said controversial text book immediately.

Mr.Andrew de Silva, Secretary to the Ministry of Education and Higher Education informed the CTTU's General Secretary that he would take appropriate steps once he received a full report from the National Institute of Education which is responsible for the preparation of the school text books, CTTU sources said.

Last Wednesday, a delegation of the Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union was granted an appointment to meet the Additional Secretary of the Ministry in this regard.

However, the Additional Secretary cancelled the meeting at the last minute when a group of Buddhist monks, led by a Sinhala Professor, demanded that talks with the CTTU should be abandoned immediately, sources said.

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