BHUBANESWAR: The three-member high-level committee formed by the state government to probe the large-scale errors in newly printed textbooks found an absence of review and oversight, which led to the mess.
While holding the Directorate of Teacher Education and State Council of Educational Research and Training (TE and SCERT) primarily accountable, the panel also called for fixing administrative responsibility on the Odisha School Education Programme Authority (OSEPA) if it was found that a quality clearance certificate was not obtained and the textbooks were not audited before distribution.
It also sought determination of supervisory responsibility at the department level in the School and Mass Education department if an unrealistic or excessively compressed timeline was prescribed for the preparation and printing of the new textbooks.
After a staggering 1,678 factual and typographical errors were detected in the textbooks meant for students of Classes I to VIII for the 2026-27 academic session, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, on June 17, ordered the formation of the committee and a high-level inquiry, besides directing stringent action against those responsible for the mistakes.
Accordingly, the three-member committee headed by Development Commissioner Deoranjan Kumar Singh was formed. Odisha Language, Literature and Culture Secretary Bijay Ketan Upadhyaya and GA department officer Smita Pani were its members.
As per the report, the preparation and distribution of new textbooks for Classes I and VIII, following the implementation of the National Curriculum Framework-2025, was done in a phased manner over a period of 2007-12.
In contrast, the task of developing 55 new textbooks, translating and contextualising NCERT books was undertaken within a much shorter timeframe, in just one academic year (2025-26), before they were introduced for all classes at a time in 2026-27.
In the previous edition, orientation sessions for writers and experts were conducted for two days, but no such formal orientation was carried out for translation and contextualisation while developing the new books in 2025-26.
Besides, in the previous development cycle, all language textbooks were reviewed by the Odia Bhasa Pratisthan, which was not done in the present case. No written records were also found regarding oversight of the development process by any senior supervisory officer.
The committee, in its report, informed the government that it would be improper to limit the responsibility to a mere ‘printing mistake’ and made it clear that the Directorate of TE and SCERT and its then director, Manoj Kumar Padhy, were responsible.
“He (Padhy) was in charge of the post of Director, TE and SCERT, from November 29, 2024, till February 27, 2026. The committee is of the opinion that there was a lack of coordination between the director and assistant directors-cum-coordinators, resulting in a vitiated work atmosphere,” the report stated.
The panel opined that the then director did not put in place a proper oversight mechanism, resulting in such large-scale errors and causing embarrassment to the government. Of the 15 assistant directors-cum-coordinators of SCERT, at least nine failed to perform their duties with due diligence and responsibility.
The committee also sought fixing of responsibility on the authors and translators of the books concerned, subject reviewers, language editors, textbook coordinators, conveners and the final academic approving authority.
Academic scrutiny of the books was inadequate, while fact-checking and image verification were poor, it remarked. There was also negligence in language editing and proofreading.
