Education

Odisha Textbook Controversy and Government Response

Thursday, July 2, 2026
5 min read
Odisha Textbook Controversy and Government Response

Odisha’s government is saying they’ll sort out those textbooks soon. They dismissed the claims that there were over sixteen hundred mistakes, which came up after people started pointing out spelling errors and wrong references to famous people in books for Classes one through eight.

But things are still messy.

School and Mass Education Secretary N Tirumala Naik stepped up and told reporters on Wednesday that the actual number of mistakes wasn't as bad as everyone was shouting about. He claimed it was "much lower" than what had been reported floating around.

The whole thing blew up over those errors, obviously. It’s got people really criticizing the BJP-led state government for what they see as an extremely careless and utterly callous attitude toward Odia pride. Opposition parties aren't just talking about it; they are demanding resignations from Education Minister Nityananda Gond and want a CBI investigation kicked off immediately.

Naik tried to calm things down during his press conference, saying the government was treating this seriously. He promised new textbooks would be ready ASAP. "For now," he said, "children will keep studying with the corrected sheets provided to teachers." A little deflection there.

He also didn't exactly jump into confirming the exact number of errors. When pressed about those 1,678 mistakes some were citing, Naik just pushed back. He said the media and social media numbers weren't right at all. The actual count is much smaller than what was claimed. No hard numbers given out publicly, which just makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

Meanwhile, there’s this side story about other issues getting attention. Naik also avoided talking about a specific bit of controversy the inclusion of some Rajasthani folk song in the textbooks meant for Odia students. Silence on that particular point too.

He did mention corrective action is underway. They found the major mistakes and are working to issue revised editions before anything else happens. Experts and senior folks are looking over these errors, public feedback invited too. The Odisha School Education Programme Authority actually put up a list of corrections online, Naik added.

The department told officials they need to move fast now. Make sure those revisions get to the students without any further delay. Action was already taken against some people involved based on what a high-level committee found. Development Commissioner D K Singh headed that group. Naik hinted that more people might face action too.

Across the state, things kept moving sideways. In Nabarangpur, Congress saw a twelve-hour shutdown protest just because of these textbook errors. They kept pushing for Minister Gond to step down, regardless of what Naik was saying from the capital side. It just keeps swirling.

Written by Gree News Team — Senior Editorial Board

Gree News Team covers international news and global affairs at Gree News. Our collective of senior editors is dedicated to providing independent, accurate, and responsible journalism for a global audience.

#sensational#education#global#trending

More from Education

View All

Latest Headlines