Odisha rolled out 55 new NEP-aligned textbooks for Classes 1 to 8 this academic year, and a review found roughly 1,678 mistakes, with Class...

Odisha rolled out 55 new NEP-aligned textbooks for Classes 1 to 8 this academic year, and a review found roughly 1,678 mistakes, with Class 8 books alone accounting for over 700. Highlights include physicist Isaac Newton described as a great pilot, and Bollywood numbers Nimbooda Nimbooda (Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, 1999) and Rind Posh Maal (Mission Kashmir, 2000) printed as traditional folk songs. On June 26 the government suspended former SCERT Director Manoj Padhi and three Assistant Directors over the lapses. By July 2, with corrected textbooks still not online, the schooling narrative had shifted: officials began telling reporters the 1,678-error figure was exaggerated in the media, even as the promised error-free reprints remained a work in progress.