Odisha government finds 1,741 errors in Rs 175-crore school textbooks

The Odisha government has admitted to finding 1,741 errors in school textbooks for Classes I to VIII, which were produced at a cost of approximately Rs 175 crore. School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond confirmed the findings in the Odisha Assembly, noting that the errors include 1,075 instances of grammatical, typographical, and spelling mistakes, as well as five factual and conceptual inaccuracies.

The Class VIII science textbook contained the highest number of errors with 294 recorded. Other significant error counts were found in Class VII Urdu (121), Class VIII Sanskrit (114), Class VI Social Science (98), and Class VII Sanskrit (92).

Investigations revealed systemic failures in the review process, including instances where subject experts were given only one day to review final drafts and some individuals held conflicting roles as both authors and reviewers. In response to the scandal, the government has suspended ten officials, including a former director and three assistant directors from the Directorate of Teacher Education and SCERT. The Crime Branch CID has also launched an investigation into the matter. To mitigate the impact, the government is providing corrected sheets to teachers and implementing stricter fact-checking measures for future editions.