Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has decided against withdrawing and replacing all erroneous school textbooks for Classes 1 to 8, opting instead to supply rectified copies of the affected portions to schools statewide, School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond informed on Monday.
“Revised pages incorporating the corrections will be distributed to schools and District Education Officers (DEOs). Students will continue studies using the existing books alongside these supplementary corrected materials,” he said.
The decision comes after around 1,678 errors — including factual inaccuracies, grammatical mistakes, spelling errors, and inappropriate content — were found across 55 new textbooks prepared under the National Education Policy 2020 framework. The lapses drew sharp criticism from teachers, parents, and opposition parties, with the issue snowballing on social media.
The Minister further stated that action has already been taken against officials found negligent following an inquiry ordered by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi. “The Chief Minister has issued a 14-point advisory. Further action will be taken based on the inquiry report,” he added.
The 14 recommendations include maintaining a master errata register at the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), ensuring prompt dissemination of corrections to all students, and setting up a dedicated Quality Assurance Cell for rigorous textbook reviews. In future, no textbooks will proceed to printing without full approvals on language, illustrations, factual accuracy, and quality standards.
The government also suspended four senior SCERT officials, including former Director Manoj Padhi and three assistant directors, while initiating disciplinary proceedings against six others for gross negligence.
Meanwhile, a textbook titled “Kruti” (Art Education), designed for eighth-grade, featuring lyrics from the 1999 Bollywood hit song ‘Nimbooda Nimbooda’ has sparked a meme fest on social media platforms, with many users and students advocating for Odia folk or classical songs instead.
The chapter “Mo Sangita Jagata” (My World of Music) includes the complete lyrics of the traditional Rajasthani folk song, which gained massive nationwide popularity through its Bollywood adaptation in the movie ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’. Alongside Rajasthani folk, the chapter also features the lyrics of Rind Posh Maal, a song popularised by the Bollywood film ‘Mission Kashmir’.
Other reported issues include an Odia Raja song appearing in a Class 5 English textbook on festivals.
