Longhorn Grade 2 Book asking Learners to ‘Kill Themselves’   Recalled from Market

The Pupils grade two book Smart Score Encyclopedia Volume 1 by Longhorn Publishers that was asking pupils to “Kill themselves ” has been recalled from the market.

Following the public concern on the terms used in the book, Longhorn Management took full responsibility and apologized.

The Longhorn publisher Group Chief Executive Officer Maxwell Wahome wrote, “We have recalled the books from the market”. 

Mr. Wahome further added, “Corrective steps are already in place to ensure that the situation does not happen again.” 

In the recalled book, in two scenarios, it had asked questions and gave two choices. Among the choices, one was weird in that it asked them if they would end their lives.

Here are the two questions exactly how they appear in the Smart Score Encyclopedia Grade 2 Volume 1 pupils book by Longhorn Publishers:

• Alice says she looks bad. What should you tell her? (God loves her, To kill herself).
• Lucy and Margret are sisters. Lucy is loved more by her parents. What should Margret do? A) Kill herself or B) Do what her parents want.

The parents and teachers raised the alarm on the use of such words that may negatively impact the mental health of the learners.

In their statement, Longhorn Publishers acknowledged they had failed.

“For this, we are extremely sorry,” wrote the publisher in the statement. 

Mr. Maxwell Wahome added that as a publisher they take issues relating to mental health with a lot of gravity. As such it was not their intent for their materials to promote suicidal thoughts or acts among the pupils.

In 2019, the government was on the edge after a lot of errors were found in the Secondary School form one Biology, English, Physics, and Kiswahili textbooks.  

The errors included the poor arrangement of content topics, mixing of content ideas, and spelling errors.

The most notable controversy in the publishing industry in Kenya involved the Jomo Kenyatta Foundation in 2018 when it published content with an illustration of a Member of Parliament landing in the school with a chopper.

The content in the English Grade Two Textbook raised a lot of criticism forcing the publisher to recall the books from the market.