Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi has taken action against officials following a report on errors in school textbooks. Four senior officials have been suspended, and disciplinary measures have been initiated against six others. The Chief Minister acted on recommendations to address the serious lapses identified.
The suspended officials include the former director of Directorate of Teacher Education and the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Manoj Padhi, along with three Assistant Directors. Additionally, disciplinary proceedings have been started against six Assistant Directors based on the committee’s findings. The committee also proposed 14 measures to enhance education quality and rectify textbook errors.
The state government will implement the 14 recommendations put forth by the committee. These actions include creating a master Errata Register, ensuring corrected information reaches all students, and providing replacement pages or correction sheets for serious errors. Moreover, the committee suggested various steps such as declaring the corrected PDF version as the official teaching copy and organizing correction orientation programs for teachers.
The high-level committee advised issuing show-cause notices and taking necessary action against the responsible parties. It also recommended establishing a Quality Assurance Cell within SCERT and ensuring proper approval before sending textbooks for printing. The investigation into errors in textbooks from Class I to Class VIII revealed a significant number of mistakes, with the highest in Class VIII textbooks, including errors in various subjects like Sanskrit, Social Science, Literature, English, and Mathematics.
