Overview
- Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi directed the director of the State Council of Educational Research and Training to file an FIR with the Crime Branch to start a criminal investigation into the textbooks.
- The action follows a high-level administrative inquiry that found about 1,678 errors across 55 Class I–VIII textbooks and led to the suspension of the former SCERT director and three assistant directors.
- The contested books were printed by SCERT and circulated to more than 40 lakh students, with reported mistakes that include factual blunders and mislabeled items such as a passage that described Isaac Newton as a pilot.
- Officials have begun departmental disciplinary proceedings against six other assistant directors while the Crime Branch probe will seek to establish whether the faults were due to negligence, misconduct or a deliberate effort to harm the state government.
- The case exposes large gaps in the textbook review and publication process and could prompt wider changes to how state textbooks are edited, vetted and approved for classroom use.