GagWatch

I tend to be a little wary of ‘Political Correctness Gone Mad’ type stories, largely because they often turn out to be untrue. However, it appears that an interactive retelling of the Three Little Pigs fairy tale has been rejected (via) by a government agency’s awards panel as the subject matter could offend Muslims…. and builders.

Becta, the government’s educational technology agency, rejected the digtal books entry in the annual Bett Award for schools warning that “the use of pigs raises cultural issues”. And builders.

The Three Little Cowboy Builders has already been a prize winner at the recent Education Resource Award - but its Newcastle-based publishers, Shoo-fly, were turned down by the Bett Award panel.

The feedback from the judges explaining why they had rejected the CD-Rom highlighted that they “could not recommend this product to the Muslim community”.

They also warned that the story might “alienate parts of the workforce (building trade)”.

According to the Daily Telegraph (via):

Muslims criticised Becta’s response and insisted that a computer program based on the Three Little Pigs should be welcomed in state schools.

Tahir Alam, the head of education at the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “We are not offended by that at all.”

Which makes the whole affair look like a case of over-sensitivity on the part of Becta, who are standing by their verdict no matter what.

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