THE EDUCATION Ministry will write its own versions of all history textbooks after the row over the ‘inaccuracies’ of a specific book taught in primary schools escalated into a political debate.
According to the acting Education Minister, Interior Minister Neoclis Silikiotis, there is a need for an objective, scientific and complete modern history to be written in Cyprus.
“We have an obligation towards the current and the younger generations to give them an objective and complete view of our history. There is currently a committee which is involved in looking into writing new books,” he said yesterday.
The Education Ministry is currently finalising a proposal outlining the shortcomings of the modern history textbook which was written in Greece. The chapter entitled ‘The Cypriot question’ is the cause of the debate, with education officials insisting that not enough is being made of the Cyprus problem.
Among the ministry’s complaints is the fact that the map of Cyprus is coloured in two different shades, while there are no references to the missing and only passing reference to refugees. As well as this, the ministry cited “phrasing inaccuracies” in the book.
Politicians joined in the debate yesterday, with the Chairman of the House Education Committee Nicos Tornaritis calling for the book to be withdrawn from schools until the necessary corrections were made.
With a host of high-profile politicians siding with the Ministry on the matter and DIKO Deputy Antigone Papadopoulou calling for the issue to be taken to Parliament for further discussion, only coalition party AKEL took a slightly different stance on the issue.
Deputy Takis Hadjigeorgiou claimed that the debate about the books was being blown out of proportion.
“It is the view of AKEL that our history books should be written here in Cyprus; however, no Education Ministry has been brave enough to take on such a task.
“Saying this however, the extent of the reaction is not proportional to the problem. The problem is definitely there, there are some inaccuracies and there could have been more mention of Cyprus, but the discussions which are taking place are not really related to the subject,” he added.
According to the President of the Pedagogical Institute in Greece, which produced the book, there are no plans to change its contents.
“There have been discussions on evaluating the new school textbooks for this year, there have been both negative and positive comments. Before making any sort of changes we will be evaluating the books.
Currently, we do not have any plans to issue a new version of the books for next year, while we did not expect the opinions of the Education Minister of Cyprus,” he said.
