Bhubaneswar, July 25: After widespread errors were detected in school textbooks and the issue drew strong displeasure from Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, the Odisha government has initiated a comprehensive exercise to ensure students receive error-free textbooks from the next academic session. The State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) has now floated a tender to revise and prepare corrected editions of the books.

The move comes after the School and Mass Education Department faced criticism over numerous mistakes in textbooks prescribed for school students. While the department initially treated the issue as routine, the Chief Minister's intervention prompted a detailed review and the formulation of a structured roadmap for textbook revision.

As part of the process, SCERT recently conducted a week-long workshop from July 7 to 13, bringing together subject experts from across the state. Workshops were held simultaneously on 11 subjects, including Odia, English, Mathematics, Science, Environmental Science, Social Science, Hindi, Sanskrit, Art Education, Physical Education and Vocational Education. Experts identified factual, linguistic and conceptual errors and recommended additions, deletions and other content revisions.

To implement these recommendations, SCERT issued a tender on July 20, inviting private firms and printing agencies to undertake the revision and preparation of corrected manuscripts. The last date for submission of bids is July 26, while the technical bids will be opened on July 27 in the presence of participating bidders. The selected agency has been directed to complete the entire revision process within one month of receiving the work order.

According to the tender conditions, the selected firm will collect textbooks and digital manuscripts from SCERT's Curriculum Development Cell before preparing revised drafts. The first corrected manuscript must be submitted within seven days for review by subject experts. Based on their observations, further revisions will be carried out until the manuscripts receive final approval.

The revised textbooks will undergo multiple rounds of scrutiny to eliminate every possible error before being cleared for printing. SCERT officials said the objective is to ensure that students receive academically accurate and quality learning materials. The Curriculum Development Cell has been entrusted with monitoring the entire exercise, and payments to the selected agency will be released only after satisfactory completion of the work. No advance payment will be made.

The tender also prescribes detailed production standards. The selected agency will be responsible for editing, desktop publishing (DTP), page layout, cover design, artwork, printing, binding, packaging and transportation of the textbooks. Printing will be carried out in Odia, English, Hindi, Sanskrit and Urdu, and the agency must submit editable digital files along with PDF versions of every textbook to SCERT.

Officials indicated that if the revision process proceeds as scheduled, the corrected textbooks are expected to be finalised by September-October, after which they will be sent for printing and distribution. The government hopes the exercise will restore confidence in the state's school education system and prevent the recurrence of textbook errors in future editions.