‘Errors’ found in National Anthem and state song in Odisha school textbooks

Fresh errors have surfaced in Odia textbooks supplied to private English medium schools in Odisha, including mistakes in the National Anthem and state song. Teachers flagged spelling errors and unusual sequencing of the Odia alphabet, while parents complained about being forced to print PDF versions of the book.

Bhubaneswar: After large-scale errors were noticed in textbooks of the Odisha government schools, mistakes were allegedly detected in the National Anthem and state song in the Odia textbook for class-1 students in English medium private institutes.

Though the schools are run privately, the state government supplies the Odia language textbooks for the students.

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The School and Mass Education Department said the allegations are “unjustified” as the process of correcting the errors in textbooks is underway.

These fresh mistakes were found when the CID-Crime Branch of the Odisha Police is probing into the large-scale errors in the textbooks for the students of classes 1 to 8 in Odia medium government schools.

Over 1,600 mistakes, including spelling errors and incorrect names of eminent personalities, were found in 55 books supplied by the department.

“Serious mistakes have been detected in the Odia textbook named ‘Jhulana-1’, in which there is a spelling error in the word ‘Utkala’ in the National Anthem,” pointed out a teacher.

Apart from this, there is also a mistake in Odisha’s state song, “Bande Utkala Janani’ (Hail Mother Odisha). “In the phrase ‘Ghana Ghana Banabhumi’ (series of forests), one ‘Ghana’ is missing,” pointed out a teacher working in Jagatsinghpur district.

The teachers also alleged that the language textbook introduces the Odia alphabet in an unusual sequence, beginning with the consonant ‘Cha’ instead of the vowel ‘Aa’.

The book confuses both children and the teachers, they said.

The teachers also accused the department of electronically sending a 168-page PDF document to several schools, instead of the book.

The move forced parents to get the PDF version printed and give it to their wards for study.

The parents have urged the government to correct mistakes in the textbook and provide printed copies instead of PDF documents.

Meanwhile, the School and Mass Education Department rejected media reports of fresh errors in the textbook as “unjustified.”

“Correction of mistakes in textbooks is underway on the basis of inputs provided by educationists and experts. The rectified version of the textbooks will be provided to the students soon,” the department said in an X post on Wednesday.

Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi has ordered the CID to probe into the large-scale mistakes found earlier in textbooks.

Majhi suspects that there was a “conspiracy” behind the publication of error-ridden textbooks.