Kosovo authorities are telling teachers and students to ignore a paragraph in a high school textbook that labels rock music as criminal.

The Ministry of Education said the part of the citizenship textbook stating that "rock music, pornography, violence on television - all not good acts - have been proven as totally criminal" must be disregarded by teachers. The paragraph will be deleted in future editions, it said on Wednesday.

The textbook has been in circulation for at least eight years, but sparked outrage when the news of the contentious paragraph emerged on Kosovo's public television last week.

The author blamed the episode on a technical mistake, but added that some songs "can negatively affect children."

Kosovo is a majority ethnic Albanian former province of Serbia that seceded in 2008.