Bhubaneswar: Cracking down on textbook blunders, Odisha govt on Friday suspended four senior officials and initiated action against six others. It will also issue replacement pages for serious errors while circulating corrected PDFs for classroom use.Besides, the govt will issue show-cause notices to the DTP agency, printer and approving authorities, and take appropriate action against those found responsible.Acting on the recommendations of a three-member committee formed on June 18 under the chairmanship of development commissioner Deoranjan Kumar Singh to examine errors in school textbooks, chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi ordered the action, a day after the CM told TOI that the large-scale errors may be part of a conspiracy to defame the govt.Among those suspended is former director of the Directorate of Teacher Education and State Council of Educational Research and Training (TE & SCERT), Manoj Kumar Padhy, who held the post during the textbook preparation, before his transfer to the higher education department in Feb. Three assistant directors — Pralipta Mishra, Dilip Kumar Sahoo and Bharati Tudu — were also placed under suspension.Disciplinary proceedings were initiated against six assistant directors — Bandita Pattanaik, Manas Rout, Manoranjan Mohapatra, Prashant Kumar Sahu, Manas Kumar Nayak and Sudarsan Santara — who, according to the govt sources, were involved in planning, developing and revising school curricula and textbooks.The crackdown follows widespread outrage from teachers, parents and educationists over around 1,600 errors detected across school textbooks, raising concerns over academic credibility and the impact on students’ learning.The state govt has decided to implement 14 recommendations of the Singh-led panel, aimed at correcting the lapses and safeguarding education.Key steps include preparation of a master errata register by the SCERT, supply of corrected content to all students and establishment of a dedicated Textbook Quality Assurance Cell within the SCERT.To address the immediate concerns, the govt will publish the master errata register within seven days and distribute replacement pages or reprinted inserts for serious errors. Printed correction sheets will also be provided to the students, while corrected PDFs will be declared the official teaching version for classroom use.An immediate orientation programme will be conducted for teachers to ensure uniform adoption of corrections, and a responsibility matrix will be prepared to fix accountability for each error.As part of the systemic reforms, subject-wise curricular area groups and book-wise textbook development committees will be constituted on the NCERT pattern. A four-level proofreading system and final locked PDF mechanism will be introduced to prevent recurrence of such lapses.Additionally, a public errata portal will be created as a centralised digital platform for reporting, tracking and publishing corrections. Pilot testing of every new textbook will be made mandatory, and no book will be sent for printing without final clearance on academic content, language, facts, illustrations and production quality.
