Manama: Saudi Arabia’s education minister has dismissed the ministry’s undersecretary for curricula and educational programmes Mohammad Bin Atiyah Al Harithi over a blunder in a school textbook. The error in question was a doctored black-and-white photograph of King Faisal signing the United Nations charter with the Star Wars character Yoda perched next to him.
The minister, Ahmad Bin Mohammad Al Eisa, also ordered that those who had been tasked with reviewing and endorsing school books be dismissed and reinstated in their prior professions.
Al Eisa said all reviews and printing of schools books will be carried out by a company for the development of education services, the Saudi daily Okaz reported on its website yesterday.
An ad-hoc committee, to be headed by the deputy minister, is to be formed with the specific aim of restructuring curricula and educational programmes.
The education ministry last week came under fire on social media for the blunder.
The ministry rushed to withdraw the textbook while it offered apologies and regrets over the inadvertent error.
The ministry said it had launched an investigation to determine the origin of the error, adding it had started printing a corrected copy of the textbook.
Saudi artist Abdullah Al Sheri said he had worked on the picture of King Faisal with the little green Star Wars character.
The 26-year-old said it was part of a series in which he added film characters to photographs documenting major moments in Arab history.
He insisted he did this for fun, without intending to offend anyone, and that he became aware it had been used in an official textbook after he received a message about it on his mobile.
