A three-member high-level committee, led by development commissioner Deoranjan Kumar Singh, which is probing errors in school textbooks, held a meeting here on Friday in presence of school and mass education department secretary N Thirumala Naik.
Sources said the committee, also comprising Odia language, literature and culture department secretary Bijay Ketan Upadhyay and general administration deputy secretary Smita Pani, discussed key aspects of the probe, including how such a large number of errors appeared in the textbooks and what monitoring mechanism was in place to check them before printing and distribution.
Background of the Investigation
The committee is examining lapses in the preparation of new textbooks for the 2026-27 academic session, which the school and mass education department has described as an “experimental edition”.
The meeting was held two days after chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi ordered a thorough inquiry into the 1,678 errors detected in the new Odia textbooks for classes I to VIII. The chief minister asked the committee to submit its report to the govt within a week, after which action would be taken against the people or institutions responsible for the error-ridden books.
Extent of Errors
Around 90% of the textbooks have already been printed and distributed among the students, while the remaining 10% are under preparation. The highest number of errors, 705, has been found in Class VIII textbooks, which students are now expected to correct on their own. These include 294 errors in jijnasa, 114 in Sanskrit, 25 in social science and 31 in literature, besides several others in English and mathematics.
Madhusmita Sahoo, director of TE and SCERT, had said on Thursday that reprinting the books at this stage was not feasible. An 87-page corrigendum has been issued for rectification by students and teachers.
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