As the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) intensified pressure on the Odisha government over errors in school textbooks during the ongoing monsoon session of the Odisha Legislative Assembly, details have emerged suggesting that the books were prepared in a lackadaisical manner. The writers involved were reportedly not provided any orientation on textbook translation or contextualisation, raising questions over the process followed in preparing the error-ridden books.
The report of the three-member inquiry committee comprising its chairman Deoranjan Kumar Singh, Development Commissioner, members Bijay Ketan Upadhyaya, Secretary of Odia Language, Literature and Culture, and Smita Pani from General Administration and Public Grievance Department, has flagged several lapses in the preparation of the textbooks.
Pradip Pradhan, a Right To Information activist, who was provided a copy of the inquiry report on Monday (September 21, 2026), said that though the government had accepted most of the findings and recommendations, many were curious about the details of the careless steps that had led to the disruption of the first half of the current academic session.
“During the previous development of new text books, orientation of writers and experts was done for two days, but during development of books in 2025-26, no formal orientation of writers was done regarding text book translation and contextualisation,” the committee said, flagging how the School and Mass Education Department rushed through textbook preparation process with inadequate time provided for the exercise.
“Earlier, subject experts were given 3 months’ time for final review and editing the final manuscript, but in the current case, the subject experts were given only one day to go over the manuscript, which was inadequate,” the report said.
After errors were reported in media, the Director of Teacher Education and State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) carried out the exercise of re-examining the books resulting in the detection of 1,731 errors, of which five were factual errors, while the remaining errors were related to spelling and printing.
The entire process of developing the books, including final review by the subject expert, was carried out in workshop mode, the members said.
“The total number of days spent on development of books, review, DTP of the manuscript after review, proofreading of the material after desktop publishing (DTP) and final review by the subject experts ranged from 12 to 30 days per subject in a time span of approximately four months,” they found out.
According to the report, the entire exercise of developing 55 books, from initial stage to final review by subject experts, was done between March 2025 and November 2025.
The committee also found that resource persons were repeatedly assigned different roles for the same class and subject, including writer, reviewer, proofreader, and final subject expert. “The same person playing multiple roles led to non-detection of errors, particularly where he or she acts as writer and reviewer or final subject expert, errors went undetected,” the committee said.
A comparison with the preparation and introduction of new text books for Class I to VIII following the implementation of National Curriculum Framework, 2005, revealed that the textbooks were prepared and introduced in phased manner for different classes over three academic sessions covering the period from 2007-12.
“In contrast, the development of the present textbooks [translation and contextualisation of NCERT books and development of Odia text books] was undertaken within a considerably shorter timeframe in 2025-26 and introduction of the textbooks in all the classes from Class I to Class VIII in one academic session 2026-27,” the high-level committee said.
“If an unrealistic or excessively compressed timeline was prescribed for textbook preparation and printing, resulting in relaxation of academic review, proofing, and factchecking, supervisory responsibility may be determined at the departmental level,” the committee had recommended.
Acting on the committee’s recommendations, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi had suspended former SCERT Director Manoj Kumar Padhy and three assistant directors and ordered departmental proceedings against six assistant directors.
However, the BJD has continued demanding resignation of School and Mass Education Minister Nityanand Gond alleging that the 1,731 errors were not merely procedural lapses, and called for the Minister’s leadership and supervisory roles to be analysed and responsibility to be fixed.
On the second day of Monsoon Session of the Odisha Legislative Assembly, BJD members had staged protests both inside and outside house.
Published – September 23, 2026 03:00 pm IST
