The official inquiry committee that investigated 1,731 errors in Odisha school textbooks for Classes 1 to 8 found that the same resource persons were repeatedly assigned as writers, reviewers, proofreaders and final subject experts, revealed activist Pradip Pradhan on Wednesday. Pradhan obtained the probe report through an RTI application.
Chief minister Mohan Majhi called it a ‘conspiracy’ against his government. The committee found the time allocated for textbook development exercise for 55 textbooks was just about four months while earlier exercise following implementation of the National Curriculum Framework, 2005, happened over three academic sessions.
Subject experts who had earlier been given substantially more time for final review were given only a limited period to examine manuscripts at the final stage this year. Opposition Biju Janta Dal also demanded the resignation of school and mass education minister Nityananda Gond in Odisha assembly on Wednesday over textbook errors.
In July this year, Odisha government suspended former director of State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) , Manoj Padhi, and assistant directors Pradipta Mishra, Dilip Kumar Sahu and Bharati Tudu. The suspension came following a probe led by development commissioner DK Singh which investigated the errors. Padhi was also arrested by Criminal Investigation Department (CID). SCERT is the state agency that is entrusted with preparation of school textbooks.
