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Belgian Textbook Publisher Apologizes for Including Political Interview, Sparks Education Controversy
Saturday 3 September 2022, by
An interview with Ecolo co-president Rajae Maouane, published in a school textbook, is causing controversy. Faced with the media outcry, the publisher was forced to apologize, while indicating the reasons why this interview was included in the school textbook.
Before Plantyn’s apologies were published, the Minister of Education had earlier on Thursday announced the opening of an administrative investigation to verify whether the content of the school textbook was in compliance with the legal requirements in this matter. For its part, Plantyn acknowledges its mistake and makes its mea culpa. "The dissemination of an interview with a political personality in a school textbook is a real human error that we regret and for which we intend to fully assume responsibility," reports Belga.
For Editions Plantyn, "this interview is part of a vast and ambitious educational process developed throughout the manual." They believe that their objective is "to mention the career of this woman from diversity who is now one of the main political figures in the country," and that it was in no way a political propaganda.
Instead of the controversial version, another one will be proposed "in the next few days". In the meantime, Plantyn invites teachers "to postpone the treatment of the contentious chapter and to remove it from the manual."