Alleging that newly-introduced school textbooks have distorted Odisha’s geography, history and cultural heritage, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Tuesday accused the BJP government of compromising educational standards and misleading students through what it described as glaring errors in Odia-medium textbooks.
Addressing a press conference here, BJD spokesperson and media coordinator Dr. Lenin Mohanty claimed that textbooks prepared under the National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 framework and published by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) contained numerous factual, geographical, historical and linguistic inaccuracies.
Among the examples cited by the party were the alleged use of a photograph of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly in place of the Odisha Legislative Assembly, the depiction of Odisha’s sacred Niyamgiri Hills as being located in Jharkhand, incorrect references to Ganjam district and misspelling of the names of renowned Odia personalities, including eminent vocalist Sunanda Patnaik and scholar Pandit Nilakantha Das.
Describing the issue as a “matter of serious concern and public embarrassment,” Dr. Mohanty said a review of textbooks for Classes I to VIII had identified as many as 1,678 errors, including 705 mistakes in Class VIII books alone. According to the BJD, the errors range from spelling mistakes and incorrect facts to wrong photographs, geographical distortions and misidentification of prominent personalities.
“These are not routine editorial lapses. Such mistakes distort students’ understanding of Odisha’s history, geography, culture and identity and can have long-term consequences on their learning,” he said.
Questioning the BJP government’s repeated assertions on protecting “Odia Asmita” (Odia identity), the BJD alleged that the scale of errors reflected negligence and a lack of quality control in textbook preparation.
The party also criticised the School and Mass Education Department for issuing a corrigendum after the mistakes came to light, saying it exposed serious shortcomings in the editing and proofreading process.
Demanding immediate corrective action, the BJD called for the withdrawal of all error-ridden textbooks, a comprehensive inquiry into the lapses, accountability of those responsible and publication of revised, error-free editions before the next academic session. The party said it would continue to pursue the issue both inside and outside the Assembly.