Bhubaneswar: Members of the Congress-affiliated NSUI held a demonstration in Bhubaneswar Thursday, demanding the resignation of School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond over alleged errors in newly introduced school textbooks.
Carrying posters, banners and copies of the popular Odia alphabet primer ‘Madhu Barnabodha’, NSUI activists marched towards the minister’s official residence and attempted to gherao it.
Tension briefly flared when police stopped the protesters from advancing towards the residence. A scuffle ensued, following which several NSUI activists were detained and taken away in police vehicles.
NSUI leader Yashir Nawaz claimed that around 1,700 errors had been identified in the books prepared for school students.
“The minister and his department are playing with the future of students. Public money worth around Rs 50 crore has been wasted,” he alleged.
Demanding Gond’s resignation, Nawaz said the minister had failed in his responsibilities, and called for an impartial inquiry into the circumstances that led to the alleged mistakes in the textbooks.
Meanwhile, the RSS-affiliated ABVP also criticised the errors, describing them as “totally unacceptable”.
In a statement, the students’ organisation demanded action against the teachers and officials responsible for the mistakes in the textbooks prepared by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Odisha.
The ABVP further urged the School and Mass Education Department to ensure that all necessary corrections are made before the books are distributed to students.
The controversy erupted after a section of government school teachers pointed out several errors in the textbooks, including spelling mistakes and incorrect references to eminent personalities. The books were prepared in accordance with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and prescribed for the 2026-27 academic session.
Amid the row, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi Wednesday ordered the formation of a three-member committee to identify those responsible for the errors.
According to reports, the new textbooks prepared by State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), under the Odisha Curriculum 2025 for Classes I to VIII contain nearly 1,678 identified errors.
The highest number of mistakes — 705 — has been found in the Class VIII textbooks alone, including 294 errors in Jijnasa, 114 in Sanskrit, 25 in Social Science, and 31 in Literature, along with several significant errors in English and Mathematics. 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.
