27 officials punished for illustrations mocking students in China – Egypt Today

27 officials punished for illustrations mocking students in China – Egypt Today

CAIRO – 24 August 2022: China's Ministry of Education has sanctioned 27 officials after illustrations in math textbooks sparked outrage. The ministry stated that the national textbook management lacks adequate guidance and supervision, and criticized the publisher for not following strict protocol in reviewing textbooks. The investigation began - according to the British Daily Mail newspaper - after an outrage campaign spread online over the illustrations, describing students as ugly and sexually inappropriate, and that the style of clothing was secretly pro-US. In response to the investigation, the ministry announced on Monday that it had fired the editor-in-chief of the state-owned Peoples Education Press, China's most popular textbook publisher. Communist Party secretary and publisher of the People's Education Press, Huang Qiang, received a stern and defamatory warning, as did Tian Huisheng, director of the ministry's National Textbooks Department, according to the South China Morning Post. The ministry dismissed two other officials who worked on the textbook and imposed disciplinary sanctions on 17 officials from the publisher and five from the ministry. Peoples Education Press apologized after it faced criticism on social media that the illustrations were "ugly" and "sexually suggestive". China ordered a nationwide review of textbooks after netizens complained