Odisha school textbooks had 1,741 errors after Rs 175 crore spent on printing

The Odisha government on Friday said 1,741 errors were found in textbooks for Classes 1 to 8, for which Rs 175 crore was spent on printing and publication. The issue was raised in the Assembly, where School and Mass Education Minister Nityanand Gond gave the details in a written reply to a question from Congress MLA Sofia Firdous.

The minister said the errors included grammatical, typographical and spelling mistakes, along with a small number of factual and conceptual mistakes. He also said the government has taken steps to correct the problems in revised editions and has introduced fresh checks to prevent such errors in future.advertisement❮❯ Read Full Story1,075 GRAMMATICAL, TYPOGRAPHICAL, SPELLING, 5 FACTUAL ERRORS; 661 SUGGESTIONSAccording to Gond, a total of 1,075 grammatical, typographical and spelling errors, along with five factual and conceptual errors, were found across different school textbooks. Besides these, 661 suggestions were made to improve the books, he said.

The data shared by the minister showed that 294 errors were found in the Class 8 Science textbook, 121 in the Class 7 Urdu book, 114 in the Class 8 Sanskrit book, 98 in the Class 6 Social Science book, and 92 in the Class 7 Sanskrit book.

Gond said steps had been taken to rectify all such errors in the revised editions of the textbooks. "Specific measures, such as fact-checking by subject and language experts, have been introduced during textbook preparation to prevent the recurrence of such errors in future textbooks. Error-free books are being printed and distributed to students," he added.

In another statement, the minister said the Directorate of Teacher Education and the State Council of Educational Research and Training were given the responsibility of publishing the textbooks, and that the books were printed as per the draft prepared by the council. He added that after printing and distribution, some errors in the textbooks came to notice. Taking the matter seriously, the government suspended the then director and three assistant directors, and also initiated disciplinary action against six other assistant directors.

In sum, the Odisha government told the Assembly that errors were found in school textbooks from Classes 1 to 8 after their printing and distribution, and said corrections, stricter checks and action against officials have followed.- EndsRead | Odisha to replace Class 1-8 textbooks after error row, rejects claim of 1,678 mistakes