Odisha School Textbooks Errors: Probe Panel Finds Same People Given Overlapping Roles, Unrealistic Timelines
New Delhi: Months after an alarm was raised over widespread and glaring mistakes in the newly revised textbooks for classes 1 to 8 in Odisha, an inquiry committee constituted by the Odisha government that investigated the errors has found that some of the same resource people were assigned overlapping roles as writers, reviewers, proofreaders and final subject experts, which ultimately caused the extent of negligence, Hindustan Times reported.
As many as 1,731 errors were found in the school textbooks, the revision process for which was carried out in adherence to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The findings come amid a increased attacks by youth and students’ wings of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) against the ruling BJP government, and repeated adjournments in the Odisha assembly proceedings with the opposition seeking the resignation of the state school and mass education minister Nityananda Gond over the errors.
According to the report by the three-member panel, for a particular subject and class, the same person was assigned multiple responsibilities – as writer and reviewer in some cases, as reviewer and proofreader in others, and as writer, reviewer, proofreader and final subject expert in some others.
“Errors were particularly likely to remain undetected when the person who wrote the material was also responsible for reviewing it or approving it as the final subject expert,” the report stated, as quoted by the daily.
Also read: What We Learn About BJP-ruled States From Odisha’s Textbook Fiasco
The list of errors included “spelling mistakes, incorrect names of eminent personalities, and factual inaccuracies to wrong photographs”, according to PTI.
People in the know had elaborated on some of the errors: like a photograph of the Karnataka legislative assembly instead of the Odisha legislative assembly; incorrect identification of Berhampur as a district, though it is actually a city; Niyamgiri hills, being wrongly placed in Jharkhand rather than Odisha; an image of the Unesco World Heritage Site Vijaya Vitthala Temple in Hampi featured in place of Odisha’s UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Konark Sun Temple, Dongria tribe referred as “Dongaria”, etc. In an English text book, “greatest” was incorrectly spelt as “gretest”.
When the errors came to light, the Odisha government suspended seven key education officials, and withdrew the textbooks.
Added pressure caused more errors
In addition to multiple roles being undertaken by the same people, a weak academic rigour and unrealistic timelines led to further negligence, resulting in more errors.
According to The Indian Express, the writers had no formal orientation on textbook translation and contextualisation, while subject experts were given "only one day" to go over the manuscript instead of the three days given earlier for final review/editing.
“No written records were found regarding oversight of the development process by any senior supervisory officer. There are no such documents which show that the process was closely monitored by any senior supervisory officer,” the panel reportedly stated.
The inquiry committee has said that administrative responsibility for these errors should lie with the Odisha School Education Programme Authority (OSEPA), which is accountable for indenting, logistics, free textbook supply, and distribution coordination.
It suggested determining supervisory responsibility at the School and Mass Education Department level in Odisha for prescribing an “unrealistic or excessively compressed timeline” for the textbooks preparation and printing.
To ensure error-free preparation of textbooks, the panel recommended four stages of proofreading – academic proof, fact and image proof, language proof, and finally printer’s proof – before releasing the textbooks. “A signed clearance certificate should be mandatory at each proof stage,” it suggested.
As of now, former SCERT director Manoj Padhi has been arrested in connection with the errors, while new textbooks are being distributed to the school children.
Meanwhile, HT reported that a CID probe was underway in this matter. “if there is any criminal negligence, it would be revealed by the agency,” an official of the department of school and mass education said.
This article went live on September twenty-fourth, two thousand twenty six, at forty-four minutes past eight in the evening.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
