Odisha spends Rs 175 crore on school books, finds 1,741 errors

Odisha government discovered 1,741 errors in textbooks for classes 1 to 8 after spending Rs 175 crore on printing and publication. State School and Mass Education Minister Nityanand Gond told Congress MLA Sofia Firdous that 1,075 grammatical, typological and spelling mistakes and five factual or conceptual errors were identified. He added that 661 suggestions for improvement were also recorded. The class‑8 Science book contained the most mistakes with 294 errors, followed by the class‑7 Urdu book with 121 errors. The class‑8 Sanskrit textbook had 114 errors, the class‑6 Social Science book 98 errors and the class‑7 Sanskrit book 92 errors. The Directorate of Teacher Education and State Council of Educational Research and Training (TE&SCERT) was tasked with publishing the books and printed them based on the council’s draft. After distribution, the errors came to light. The government suspended the director then in charge and three assistant directors, and began disciplinary action against six more assistant directors. To stop repeat mistakes, the ministry introduced fact‑checking by subject and language experts during textbook preparation. Revised editions are being printed without errors and will be sent to students.