Odisha Govt. a criminal probe is ordered into errors in school textbooks

Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi. File | Photo credit: ANI

The Odisha government on Saturday (July 11) ordered a criminal probe into widespread errors found in school textbooks for students of classes 1 to 7.

The state government has acknowledged 1,678 errors in textbooks. However, other errors were also found in the list of corrections sent to teachers.

Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi directed the criminal investigation into the entire trial. He also directed the Director of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) to lodge an FIR with the Senior Director of Police, Crime Branch.

Earlier, a high-level committee under the chairmanship of the Development Commissioner was looking into the matter. Based on the commission’s report, the former director of SCERT was suspended along with three assistant directors and disciplinary proceedings were initiated against the six assistant directors.

Errors in school textbooks have embarrassed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, with the opposition mocking the government’s inability to publish school textbooks. According to the audit, the textbooks were riddled with grammatical and spelling errors as well as typos.

Lots of mistakes

One of the textbooks states that the Hindu goddess Sita was believed to have given birth to Lav and Kush at Sitabinj, a place in Odisha’s Keonjhar district. Women who are facing medical complications during conception can overcome this condition if they circumambulate the cradle of Devi Sita. This is contrary to the government’s efforts to build scientific temper in students.

The Class 5 textbook allegedly reproduced the lyrics of the popular song “Nimbuda Nimbuda” from the 1999 Hindi film Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam verbatim in one of its chapters.

Even the authors of school textbooks confused the places of Odisha with other states. Odisha’s Nijamgiri hill was in Jharkhand, Vidhana Soudha’s photo of Karnataka was used to represent Odisha’s legislature, and an image of the Hampi complex was used at the site of the world-famous Konark temple.

The Biju Janata Dal, the main opposition party in the state, alleged corruption to the tune of ₹300 crore in the preparation of school textbooks.

Published – 11 Jul 2026 16:44 IST