How did 1,700 errors creep into Odisha school textbooks? Some answers

The same resource persons in multiple roles, weak academic rigour and unrealistic timelines — this is what a three-member panel looking into the 1,700-odd errors in Odisha school textbooks is learnt to have found.

In its report, the three-member panel found that the mistakes — which range from factual inaccuracies and grammatical errors to wrong references — were not “merely printing errors” but related to content, concepts, facts, pictures, and language. The committee also slammed the review process, saying the rigours of academic scrutiny and final academic approval were weak.

This comes at a time when the youth and students’ wings of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) stepped up attacks against the BJP government over the errors in its newly published textbooks. On Wednesday, thousands of BJD workers staged a dharna outside the state Assembly, demanding the resignation of School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond.

In its report, sought through an RTI reply by activist Pradip Pradhan, the three-member inquiry committee headed by senior IAS officer DK Singh observed that resource persons had been repeated in different roles — from writers and reviewers to proofreaders and even final subject experts.

“The same person playing multiple roles led to non-detection of errors, particularly where he/she acts as writer and reviewer or final subject expert, errors went undetected,” it mentioned in its report.

This comes months after 1,700 mistakes were detected across 55 new textbooks for students in Classes 1 to 8.

According to the report, writers had no formal orientation on textbook translation and contextualisation, while subject experts were given only one day to go over the manuscript instead of the three days given earlier for final review/editing.

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“No written records were found regarding oversight of the development process by any senior supervisory officer. There are no such documents which show that the process was closely monitored by any senior supervisory officer,” read the report.

The committee also compared the state’s preparation and introduction of new textbooks for Classes 1-8 for the 2026-27 academic year with the process followed after the implementation of the National Curriculum Framework (NCF), 2005.

After implementation of the NCF, school textbooks in Odisha were prepared and introduced in phases for different classes from 2007 to 2012. In comparison, the most recent exercise saw textbooks conceptualised and rolled out within a year from 2025-26. “No field testing was conducted in 2025-26,” it noted.

Other findings by the probe panel included failure to fact-check and verify images, negligence in language editing and proofreading, and failure of the supervisory process.

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For errors relating to content, concepts, science, history, geography, social science, child-appropriateness, translation, and language suitability, the committee said responsibility should lie with the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), the textbook development wing and those associated with the process.

The probe panel recommended that administrative responsibility for these errors should lie with the Odisha School Education Programme Authority (OSEPA), whose responsibilities include indenting, logistics, free textbook supply, and distribution coordination.

It also suggested determining supervisory responsibility at the departmental (School and Mass Education Department) level for prescribing an “unrealistic or excessively compressed timeline” for textbook preparation and printing, resulting in relaxation of academic review, proofing and fact-checking.

To ensure error-free preparation of textbooks, the probe panel recommended four stages of proof — academic proof, fact and image proof, language proof and printer’s final proof — before bulk printing. “A signed clearance certificate should be mandatory at each proof stage,” it suggested.

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After the errors came to light, the Odisha government suspended seven key education officials, and the textbooks have since been withdrawn.

A Crime Branch inquiry led to the arrest of former SCERT director Manoj Padhi in connection with the errors. New textbooks are now being distributed.