BHUBANESWAR: Even as the state government continues to receive severe backlash over the large-scale errors in newly-introduced school textbooks for students from Classes I to VIII, teachers’ bodies on Wednesday demanded that it make public the details of all committees involved in the preparation, review and approval of those books.
The demand comes after it was found that the revised textbooks, introduced this academic session in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, contained a total of 1,678 factual, grammatical, geographical and typographical errors.
From an image of the iconic Stone Chariot at Hampi’s Vijaya Vitthala Temple being used in place of the Konark Sun Temple to the picture of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly replacing the Odisha Assembly and Berhampur being depicted as a district, the mistakes range from incorrect identification of landmarks and institutions to errors in tribal nomenclature, language usage and geography. Class VIII textbooks alone account for 705 of the identified errors, the highest among all classes.
Reacting sharply to the matter, the Odisha Primary School Teachers’ Association urged the government to disclose details of all the panels constituted for textbook preparation and scrutiny at the elementary level, along with the criteria adopted for selecting their members.
Association president Brahmananda Maharana said it raises serious questions about the textbook review process. “It appears that the government barely followed any clear criteria while finalising members of the steering committee or other panels entrusted with content scrutiny and textbook screening before publication,” he alleged.
The teachers’ body further cited claims that some members associated with the review exercise were from outside Odisha, and called for a thorough investigation into the textbook preparation process.
Similarly, All Odisha Lower-Secondary Teachers’ Association alleged that teacher appointments to educational panels were being made without adequate consultation with experts in the field, stating it reflected a lack of seriousness towards education in government-run schools in the state.
The association also questioned the government’s description of the error-filled books as an ‘experimental edition’. Association general secretary Sukanta Kumar Behera alleged there was never any discussion or consultation regarding the introduction of experimental textbooks at the school level. “The government must fix accountability on those responsible,” he said.