Isaac Newton the pilot: Odisha suspends key officials for school text book errors

Odisha’s Niyamgiri Hills are stated to be in Jharkhand, and the Karnataka Assembly building is identified as the Odisha Vidhan Sabha in the Class 8 social science book. Sir Isaac Newton is described as the “greatest pilot” in the Class 8 science book, while Hampi in Karnataka is identified as the Konark Sun Temple in another Class 8 book, titled Jasmine.

Official sources said the probe committee found gross negligence on the part of the SCERT while preparing the textbooks, which were developed under the new curriculum in line with the National Education Policy 2020. The new textbooks were prepared for the current academic year.

“It was found during the probe that the due process was not followed by the SCERT that led to such massive errors in the textbooks because of which the probe committee recommended action against Padhi, the then director of the SCERT,” said an official.

The books have already been distributed in many districts, and the SCERT clarified Thursday that students would continue using the same books throughout the academic year, with corrections to be made only in the editions published for the next academic year.

According to officials, the probe committee has also recommended a 14-point action plan to correct the errors and improve the quality of education, which the government has decided to implement immediately.

Some of the recommendations include preparing an errata register within seven days to make the necessary corrections. The committee has asked the SCERT to provide replacement pages and reprinted inserts for serious errors, distribute printed corrected sheets to all students, declare corrected PDF pages as the official teaching version, and conduct immediate orientation for teachers on the corrections.

The probe committee has also asked the SCERT to issue show-cause notices and take necessary action against the DTP agency, printers and approving authority. It has also recommended setting up a textbook quality assurance cell in the SCERT.

To ensure error-free textbooks from the next academic year, the committee has recommended creating subject-wise curricular area groups and book-wise Textbook Development Committees on the NCERT pattern, introducing a four-proof system and a final locked PDF mechanism, and creating a Public Errata Portal. It has also recommended pilot testing every new textbook and ensuring that no textbook goes for printing without final academic, language, fact-image and production clearance.