Bhubaneswar: State government Thursday ruled out withdrawing school textbooks for Classes I to VIII containing errors, saying teachers have been instructed to identify and correct the mistakes during classroom teaching, while revised editions will be introduced from the 2027-28 academic session. Admitting that textbooks for Classes I to VIII contain errors, State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) Director Madhusmita Sahu said, “The books had already been distributed among students across the state and therefore would not be withdrawn.”
Teachers have been asked to guide younger students in correcting mistakes in their books, while students in higher classes will be encouraged to identify and rectify inaccuracies themselves under the supervision of teachers, Sahu said. “The revised and corrected textbooks will be published from the 2027-28 academic session,” Sahu said, adding that SCERT has already initiated measures to ensure future editions are free of errors.
Meanwhile, BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty alleged that the presence of errors in textbooks could create confusion among students and adversely affect their performance in examinations. “The government’s actions are intended to damage the future of Odisha’s students,” he alleged. Claiming that textbooks containing 1,760 errors had been distributed among students of Classes I to VIII in government schools, Mohanty said the government had failed to withdraw the books despite acknowledging the mistakes. “After the issue came to light, the CM convened a meeting Wednesday and ordered a high-level inquiry. However, no step has been taken to withdraw the error-ridden books,” he said.
Among the most widely discussed mistakes are the description of Sir Isaac Newton as a ‘great pilot’ instead of a scientist, the use of an image of Karnataka’s Vidhan Soudha in place of the Odisha Legislative Assembly, and the identification of Hampi’s famous stone chariot as the Konark Sun Temple. Other inaccuracies reportedly involve Odisha’s geography, history and cultural heritage. Odisha Parents’ Federation described the publication of the error-ridden textbooks as a serious failure of the education system.
