News Dubai

Parents withdraw children from school over textbook controversy
By Nina Muslim, Staff Reporter

Some Filipino Muslim parents have withdrawn their children from a private Filipino school in protest against its alleged sale and use of a textbook which contains incorrect information on Islam.

Vanjo Andig and Adnan Magangcong withdrew their six-year-old children last week from the United International Private School when they discovered the textbooks they bought at the school were the 2004 version of People, Places and Events in the Philippines by Caroline P. Danao.

The 2004 version of the Grade One social science textbook described Muslims as praying four times a day while facing the sun and kissing the ground as a sign of respect to God.

The book has since been replaced by a revised 2005 edition that says Muslims pray five times a day while facing the direction of Makkah and they bring their heads close to the ground while in the kneeling position as a sign of respect to Allah.

But Andig and Magangcong said the school was still selling the older version.

"We asked the school if the books we bought were OK and they said the books had been approved by the Education Ministry, implying they were correct. But after the news report came out, I found they had the mistakes Gulf News described," Andig said.

"Withdrawing our children was a matter of principle for us," he added.

Gulf News reported on August 31 that the same textbook had been withdrawn by a Filipino school in Doha, Qatar, following complaints from an Islamic group.

School officials at the Dubai school denied they were still distributing the 2004 version of the textbook, saying they were only selling the corrected 2005 version.

"If they buy the books from the school then they will get the new version. But the problem is that they buy second-hand books or they get them from back home," a senior school official told Gulf News.

She added she did not know how Andig and Magangcong bought the books, even though they had receipts with the name of the school on them which detailed the purchase.

However, she admitted some students were still using the 2004 version, adding that it was not a major problem.

"The teachers will just make a copy of the page and give the correct version to the students using the older textbook," she said.

Andig said that was not enough. He said as long as the 2004 textbook version was still in circulation, people would still get the wrong information about Islam.

"Even if there are no Muslim students in the school, they should make sure the information is correct. We cannot allow people to be misinformed about Islam. There's already so much misinformation as it is," he said.

The United International Private School has about 800 students, with Muslims accounting for two per cent.

Filipino Muslims constitute about 10 per cent of the 200,000 plus Filipino population in the UAE.