The content of school textbooks is often the issue of debate, as their target audience is young people, and the term "whitewashing" is the one commonly used to refer to selective removal of critical or damaging evidence or comment.
"[7] According to the fourth edition of the annual Global Education Monitoring Report of UNESCO, 2020, depictions of female characters are less frequent and often discriminatory in many countries' school text books.
[8] According to Prof Rae Lesser Blumberg women are either absent in school textbooks or depicted in subservient roles, perpetuating gender imbalance.
[9] UNESCO reports that pervasive sexist attitudes in school textbooks are invisible obstacles in educating girls, undermine their life expectations, careers, and gender equality.
[9] Females are underrepresented in textbooks and curricula, whether counted in lines of text, proportion of named characters, mentions in titles, citations in indexes or other criteria,[9] while stereotypes of gender roles, absence from scenes, or gender-biased language is abundant.
[9] A recent study of student evaluations of teaching (SET) from a large public university in Sydney focused on gender and cultural bias.
The researchers concluded, "We detected statistically significant bias against women and staff with non-English language backgrounds, although these effects do not appear in every faculty.
[15] On the political left, professors Howard Zinn and James Loewen allege that United States history as presented in school textbooks has a conservative bias.
Loewen spent two years at the Smithsonian Institution studying and comparing twelve American history textbooks widely used throughout the United States.
An analysis of Israeli textbooks in 2000 by the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (CMIP), found that there was no indoctrination against the Arabs as a nation, nor a negative presentation of Islam.
According to Waghmar, many of the oriental societies are plagued by visceral nationalism and post-imperial neurosis where state-sanctioned dogmas suppress eclectic historical readings.
A study by Nayyar & Salim (2003) that was conducted with 30 experts of Pakistan's education system, found that the textbooks contain statements that seek to create hate against Hindus.
Dr. Parvez Hoodbhoy, who was also a critic of Pakistani politics, had troubles leaving the country for a lecture in the Physics department at MIT, because he was denied a NOC (No Objection Certificate) necessary for travels abroad.
The Pakistani Curriculum document for classes K-V stated in 1995 that "at the completion of Class-V, the child should be able to": Turkish schools, regardless of whether they are public or private, are required to teach history based on the textbooks approved by the Ministry of Education.
Explain that the Ottoman State took certain measures following these developments, and in May 1915 implemented the ‘Tehcir Kanunu’ [Displacement Law] regarding the migration and settlement of Armenians in the battleground.