CAIRO: 80,000 copies of history and civic education books have been recalled by the Egyptian Minister of Education Ahmed Gamal el-Din Mussa for depicting pictures of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. According to sources from the ministry of education, the books were printed in the summer of 2010, prior to the January 25 Revolution. Copies of the books, which contained Mubarak's pictures, were withdrawn after many complaints were lodged from teachers and parents. According to them, the books contain historical inaccuracies, which could have a detrimental effect on student learning. The sources further state that surpluses of 30 million copies were circulated in order to save roughly $20 million dollars in reprinting costs. The minister has also asked the covers to be redesigned to depict historical events rather than political figures to combat the cult of personality often found in Egypt. “Allowing historical inaccuracies to be published in the syllabus can hamper student's learning for generations,” Mostafa Nasr, a former Cairo University student and activist told Bikyamasr.com “Reusing old books is the reason no one is able to effectively change a school curriculum that has no educational value,” he continued. “If anything's worth the money in this country right now, it's updated school books.” Historian Aim Desouqi has begun modifying the history syllabi of elementary and middle schools. He has called for schools to refrain from teaching anything in regards to the current political era until it ends. Desouqi believes this is necessary in order to avoid allowing political bias enter the syllabi. Officially, the minister of education asked the printing house to print 153 million books for the new school year, and used the previous 30 million copies after advisers confirmed the content of the two versions match. BM
