Bhubaneswar: Following a massive uproar over major errors found in school textbooks, the committee constituted under the chairmanship of the Development Commissioner has submitted its report to Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi.
In accordance with the committee’s recommendations, the CM has taken action. The then Director of the Directorate of Teacher Education (Teachers’ Training & SCERT), Manoj Padhi, along with three Assistant Directors – Pralipta Mishra, Dilip Kumar Sahu, and Bharati Tudu – has been suspended. Similarly, disciplinary action has been initiated against six other Assistant Directors, the Office of the CM said in a post on X.
The committee was formed after over 1,500 errors were detected in textbooks prescribed for students of Classes I to VIII for the current academic session.
Teachers, parents, and Opposition parties later slammed the errors, saying it was highly unacceptable to find so many mistakes in school textbooks.
Following the controversy, Majhi instructed the committee to identify the officials and agencies responsible for the errors and submit its report within a week.
Among the major errors in the textbooks were referring to Sir Isaac Newton as a “great pilot” instead of a scientist, using an image of Karnataka’s Vidhan Soudha in place of the Odisha Legislative Assembly, and identifying Hampi’s famous stone chariot as the Konark Sun Temple.
Besides, distorted facts about Odisha’s geography, history, and cultural heritage were also widely discussed on the internet.
The Odisha Parents’ Federation blamed the state’s education system for the publication of the error-ridden textbooks.
