Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi took decisive action after receiving the inquiry report on textbook errors from the committee headed by the Development Commissioner.
The committee investigated widespread mistakes in school textbooks and submitted its findings to the Chief Minister.
Majhi suspended four officials — Manoj Padhy, former Director of Teachers Training and SCERT, along with Assistant Directors Pralipta Mishra, Dilip Kumar Sahu, and Bharati Tudu. Six other Assistant Directors — Bandita Pattnaik, Manas Ranjan Rout, Manoranjan Mahapatra, Dr Prashant Kumar Sahu, Manas Kumar Nayak, and Dr Sudarshan Santra — face disciplinary action.
The committee proposed 14 corrective measures to prevent future lapses. SCERT will publish a Master Errata Register within seven days, provide correction sheets to students, and declare the corrected PDF as the official teaching version. It will also establish a Textbook Quality Assurance Cell, create subject‑wise development committees, and introduce a four‑proof system with a locked PDF mechanism.
1. Publish the Master Errata Register within seven days.
2. Provide replacement pages or reprinted inserts for serious errors.
3. Distribute printed correction sheets to all students.
4. Declare the corrected PDF as the official teaching version.
5. Conduct immediate correction orientation sessions for teachers.
6. Prepare a detailed responsibility matrix for every identified error.
7. Issue show‑cause notices and take appropriate action against the DTP agency, printer, and approving authority.
8. Establish a Textbook Quality Assurance Cell in SCERT.
9. Form subject‑wise Curricular Area Groups and book‑wise Textbook Development Committees following the NCERT pattern.
10. Introduce a four‑proof system and a final locked PDF mechanism.
11. Launch a Public Errata Portal for transparency.
12. Implement penalty provisions, performance scoring, and blacklisting for printers and DTP vendors.
13. Conduct pilot testing for every new textbook before release.
14. Ensure no textbook goes for printing without final academic, language, fact‑image, and production clearance.
