Saudi official fired after Yoda textbook mishap

Saudi Arabia’s education minister has reportedly sacked an undersecretary after a textbook was published featuring an image of Star Wars character Yoda alongside former monarch King Faisal.

The image, showing Yoda sitting next to King Faisal as he signed the UN Charter in 1945, was originally created by Saudi artist Shaweesh as part of a series that placed pop-culture characters in Arab historical events.

It was unclear how it made its way into the social studies textbook for the current academic year.

Pictures of the page were quickly circulated on social media after the image was noticed and the incident made international headlines.

Social studies textbook in #Saudi s 10th grd class, w doctored pic of Prince Faisal signing the 1945 UN agrmt w #Yoda nxt to him! #StarWars pic.twitter.com/DI8C5dvXUD

— #ياسر_العمودي (@YaserAlamoodi) September 21, 2017

Saudi broadcaster Al-Arabiya reports that minister Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Issa held undersecretary for curricula Dr Mohammed bin Attia Al-Harthi responsible for the mishap and ordered his termination.

Al-Issa also ordered the firing of others who reviewed and approved the picture before it was printed and the formation of a committee at the company responsible for printing and reviewing educational books, Tatweer.

The committee, led by deputy minister of education Dr Abdulrahman bin Mohammed Al-Assami, will seek to restructure the department that handles curricula and educational programmes at the ministry.

Dr Rashid bin Ghayyad Al-Ghayyad has been appointed as the deputy for educational curricula and programmes in the interim period.