Education minister of Odisha clarifies media reports about textbook errors have been exaggerated.

The Minister of School and Mass Education in Odisha, Nityananda Gond, expressed his concern on Thursday regarding recent media reports about errors in the Odia textbook for Class I students in private English medium schools. He stated that these reports have been exaggerated and assured that corrected versions of the textbooks will soon be provided to the students. Gond made these statements after a meeting with Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi.

The issue of errors in textbooks first came to light in government schools, but it was later discovered that even private schools were affected. This caused a lot of uproar as the state government is responsible for supplying Odia language textbooks to these schools. The Minister clarified that the media reports on these errors were not based on facts and were being misrepresented by certain outlets.

Gond also addressed the rumors about the inclusion of the popular Bollywood song "Nimbooda Nimbooda" in the Odia textbooks. He clarified that as per the National Education Policy, students should be exposed to cultural content from different states, which is why the song was included. He urged the media to refrain from spreading misinformation and negativity.

This statement from the Minister came after the Department of School and Mass Education defended the textbook errors in Class I textbooks for English medium schools. These errors were discovered while the CID-Crime Branch of the Odisha Police was already investigating the large number of mistakes in textbooks for classes 1 to 8 in Odia medium government schools. These errors included spelling mistakes and incorrect names of important personalities, with over 1,600 errors found in 55 books.

Chief Minister Majhi had ordered the CID to conduct a thorough investigation into these mistakes, suspecting a conspiracy behind the publication of these error-ridden textbooks. Meanwhile, the opposition party, Congress, demanded a specific date from the government for when the corrected versions of the textbooks will be provided to schools across the state. The party also questioned the CID's progress in the case, as only one person has been arrested so far, former director of the State Council of Educational Research & Training, Manoj Padhi.

The Congress spokesperson, Rajani Mohanty, expressed disbelief that only one person could be behind such a wide-scale conspiracy, as suspected by the Chief Minister. The party demanded a more transparent and efficient investigation from the CID-Crime Branch. Overall, the situation has caused a lot of chaos and confusion among parents and students, and everyone is eagerly waiting for the corrected versions of the textbooks to be distributed.