Howlers galore in English textbooks

chandigarh: it is a reinvention of the english language. the queens' language appears to have been indianised, rather 'desi-ised' in school textbooks beyond comprehension. a review of the punjab school education board (pseb), haryana school education board (hseb) and even central board of secondary education (cbse) (course 'b') english textbooks reveal an overdose of grammatical and typographical errors.take for example pages 23 and 24 of pseb's supplementary reader for class 10 which have the following sentences: 'a parent must not unduly fondle of protect too much his child'; 'at the sight of me suffering seemed to have reached breaking point' and 'make over my money to her'. shockingly, similar errors have also been spotted in cbse's supplementary reader for course 'b' of class 10. however, the pseb textbook begins with a howler on the first page itself wherein subject expert has been referred to as 'subject export' and gandhiji's talisman has been spelled as 'gandiji's tailsman'. spelling errors like 'womans', 'stuperfaction' and 'aweful' commonly run through the text. in contrast, however, the supplementary reader printed by pseb for model schools has relatively less errors. this is notwithstanding the fact that the authors are the same.yet it may have to do with the fact that these are priced publications and are also printed better. pseb's english reader for class 9 is no different.' don't you make another will when you were married' and 'he will sell it to pluck out one of them and take it to the playwright' are some specimens of howlers. in contrast, the cbse textbook with the same story, is, however, correctly worded. hseb english textbooks appear comparatively error-free. one probable reason is that hseb prescribes teaching english only from class 6 onwards. but then there are examples of howlers. such as in a chapter on rani lakshmi bai appearing in the english reader prescribed for class 8. it states: 'she rode round her country to hear her people's complaint and she herself wrote out her orders'. the class exercise portion, where questions are listed, is also not devoid of its share of mistakes. one such colourfully worded question includes: 'he asked me,''have you a pen''? interestingly, the chapter on republic day in the english reader for class 8 has more to do with the reference of an unnamed education minister hoisting flag and distributing sweets rather than about the importance of republic day. when asked to comment on these errors, pseb chairman kehar singh attributed them to lack of proper proof-reading. ''if the errors are brought to our notice, we will take necessary action from the next session onwards,'' he assured. talking to the times of india about deteriorating standards of english, regional institute of english director brinda aulakh observed that since learning a language was a matter of habit, such incorrect models only reinforced errors. similarly, emphasising on the need for quality learning at the school level, panjab university english department chairman shelly walia said that school boards should take greater care since school education was the foundation of learning.