Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond Thursday alleged that media reports on errors in the Odia textbook for Class I in English medium private schools, supplied by the state government, are exaggerated.
The state government would soon provide corrected versions of textbooks to students, Gond told reporters after a meeting with Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi at his chamber.
After large-scale errors were noticed in textbooks of the Odisha government schools, mistakes were allegedly detected in the National Anthem and state song in the Odia textbook for class-I students in English medium private institutes.
Though the schools are run privately, the state government supplies the Odia language textbooks for the students.
Referring to the ‘errors’ found in the National Anthem and the state song in the textbook, the minister said, “The media reports are not based on facts.”
He said the claims regarding mistakes in the Class I textbooks were being misrepresented by a section of the media.
“The kind of errors being reported since yesterday do not exist in the manner they are being projected. Corrected textbooks will soon be provided to students,” the minister said.
He also said that several media outlets reported the inclusion of the ‘Nimbooda Nimbooda’, a popular song from the 1999 Bollywood movie ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’, in the Odia school textbooks.
“The matter has been portrayed incorrectly. The National Education Policy (NEP) encourages exposure to songs and cultural content from various states. Therefore, ‘Nimbooda Nimbooda’ was part of school textbooks in Odisha,” Gond said.
Alleging that the media have been spreading misinformation, the minister urged them not to propagate negativity.
The minister’s statement came a day after his department described the allegations of error in the textbooks of Class-I students of English Medium schools as “unjustified.”
These fresh mistakes were found when the CID-Crime Branch of the Odisha Police is probing into the large-scale errors in the textbooks for the students of classes 1 to 8 in Odia medium government schools.
Over 1,600 mistakes, including spelling errors and incorrect names of eminent personalities, were found in 55 books supplied by the department.
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi has ordered the CID to probe into the large-scale mistakes found earlier in textbooks. Majhi suspects that there was a “conspiracy” behind the publication of error-ridden textbooks.
Meanwhile, the opposition Congress Thursday said the CID-CB has arrested only one person in the earlier case of the errors found in textbooks from classes 1 to 8.
The party was referring to Manoj Padhi, former director of the State Council of Educational Research & Training, who was arrested July 13 on the charge of dereliction of duty in the preparation of textbooks. A court granted him bail Wednesday.
“How can only one person hatch a conspiracy as suspected by the chief minister? What is the CID-CB doing after arresting just one person?” asked state Congress spokesperson Rajani Mohanty.
The Congress also demanded that the government provide a specific date for supplying corrected editions of textbooks in schools across the state.