Weeks after 1,678 errors were found in Odisha’s newly introduced school textbooks, prompting the suspension of senior education officials, the state government on Saturday ordered a Crime Branch probe into the entire textbook preparation and publication process, with the chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi directing the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) director to lodge a first information report (FIR) to determine criminal liability.
The decision to hand the case over to the Crime Branch followed Majhi’s remarks that a “conspiracy” could be behind the factual inaccuracies, conceptual mistakes, typographical and grammatical errors.
Last month a high-level committee headed by the development commissioner DK Singh submitted its probe report on the inaccuracies. Following this, the government suspended former SCERT director Manoj Padhi and three assistant directors while initiating disciplinary proceedings against six other assistant directors for alleged lapses.
The scale of the errors triggered widespread criticism from teachers, parents, educationists and opposition parties.
Class V literature textbook claimed that infertile women can regain fertility by circumambulating the Sitabinji cave in Keonjhar district. Among the other errors is the placement of Odisha’s Niyamgiri Hills in Jharkhand. In several books, illustrations do not correspond to the accompanying text and scientific concepts are presented inaccurately.
The errors were detected in 55 textbooks prepared by the Directorate of Teacher Education and the SCERT under the Odisha Curriculum Framework for School Education 2025, framed in line with New Education Policy (NEP), 2020.
{{/usCountry}}The errors were detected in 55 textbooks prepared by the Directorate of Teacher Education and the SCERT under the Odisha Curriculum Framework for School Education 2025, framed in line with New Education Policy (NEP), 2020.
{{/usCountry}}The books, covering subjects including Odia, English, Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu, mathematics, social science, geography and skill education, were printed in nearly 29.6 million copies for around 5.3 million students studying in 49,259 elementary schools across the state.
People familiar with the matter said the unprecedented number of mistakes stemmed from a hurried curriculum overhaul, inadequate time for manuscript preparation, faulty translation of National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) material and deviations from the prescribed textbook development process.
The entire exercise of preparing all 55 textbooks was completed in just 15 months as the state sought to roll out the new curriculum simultaneously across Classes I to VIII.
Officials said the Crime Branch will investigate the entire chain of events leading to the publication of the flawed textbooks, fix responsibility for the lapses and recommend legal action, if warranted.