File photo of primary school students walking to their school in Odisha. | Photo Credit: Biswaranjan Route
The Odisha government on Friday (June 26, 2026) suspended four senior officials, including former State Council of Education, Research and Training (SCERT) director Manoj Padhi, and took disciplinary action against six people, holding them responsible for over 2,000 errors in textbooks taught in classes 1 to 8.
The measure was taken following the submission of an inquiry report by a committee formed under the chairmanship of the Development Commissioner to examine errors in school textbooks. While teachers pointed out more than 2,100 errors in printed textbooks for the 2026-27 academic year, the government acknowledged 1,678 errors.
Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi issued directions for suspension of the then SCERT director Manoj Padhi along with three deputy directors – Pralipta Mishra, Dilip Kumar Sahu and Bharati Tudu.
Additionally, disciplinary action has been initiated against six deputy principals: Bandita Pattnaik, Manas Ranjan Rout, Manoranjan Mohapatra, Prashant Kumar Sahu, Manas Kumar Nayak and Sudarshan Santara.
“The SCERT will prepare a Master Errata Record and provide corrected information to all students, and establish a Quality Assurance Cell,” the Chief Minister’s Office said.
Recommendations for improvement
To improve the education of students and correct mistakes, the committee had put forward 14 recommendations.
“The government will provide replacement pages or reprinted inserts for serious errors. After rectifying the errors online, the corrected PDF will be declared as the official version for teaching. It has been recommended to carry out immediate correction orientation for teachers,” the CMO said in a statement.
While asking for a liability matrix to be prepared for each mistake, the powerful committee recommended issuance of show-cause notices and appropriate action against the desktop publishing agency, the printer and the approving authority.
Textbook quality assurance cell
Furthermore, it has been suggested to constitute a quality assurance cell for textbooks in the SCERT. “Creation of subject-wise curriculum area groups and textbook development committees on NCERT pattern has been recommended,” the committee said.
“The introduction of a foolproof system and final locked PDF mechanism and the provision of penalties, performance scoring and blacklisting of DTP printers/suppliers have also been recommended,” the committee said, adding that in future, “no textbook should be printed without final academic, linguistic, image, accuracy and production quality checks.”
Published – June 26, 2026 05:46 pm IST