Odisha Textbook Row: Controversy has arisen over the inclusion of Bollywood songs in the school books of Odisha. In fact, in the Class 8 art education book ‘Kriti’, the lyrics of the song ‘Nimbooda, Nimbooda’ from the 1999 film ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’ have been included, giving the example of Rajasthani folk song. Bollywood songs have been described as folk songs in the books. Apart from this, there are a lot of mistakes.
In the same book (Class 8), the song ‘Rind Posh Maal’ is also given as an example of a Kashmiri folk song, which was made very popular by the 2000 film Mission Kashmir. Apart from describing these songs as folk songs, the Odia song ‘Raja Doli’ is also mentioned in the English book ‘Pallavi’ of class 5 and ‘Bumbro…Bumbro’ in the book of class 3. The inclusion of these songs as examples of folk songs has caused controversy.
‘Jhaal Mudi’ and ‘Kachumber Raita’ in class 6 book
However, the roots of these songs are related to folk music. Especially ‘Rind Posh Maal’ was written as a love poem by Kashmiri poet Rasool Mir in the late 18th century. On the other hand, in the skill education book of class 6, students are taught to make ‘Jhal Mudi’, Fruit Salad, Buttermilk, ‘Lassi’, ‘Mint Chutney’, ‘Sandwich’ and ‘Kachumber Raita’.
When contacted, a senior official of the School and Mass Education Department said that these songs were included in the books to introduce students to the culture of different states of the country. On condition of anonymity, the official said that this has been done under the ‘One India, Best India’ campaign. Both these songs are also in NCERT books.
1678 mistakes found in school books of Odisha
Odisha government has included them in its books from the same. Actually, this whole matter has come to light at a time when 1678 mistakes have been found in SCERT books. After this, strict investigation of these books is going on. Most of the mistakes are in class 8 books. There are a total of 705 mistakes in these. These include factual errors, grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and incorrect information.
Pilot was called Newton and Konark Temple was called Hampi.
There are some mistakes of this type in these books. The Karnataka Assembly building was declared as the Odisha Assembly building. Sir Isaac Newton was described as the ‘greatest pilot’. Also, Hampi in Karnataka was declared as Konark Sun Temple. After the report of the committee formed to investigate these mistakes, the state government has suspended four senior officials including the former director of SCERT. The government has announced that 14 recommendations of the panel will be implemented from the next session to correct the mistakes.
The work of printing books was given to private press
Meanwhile, officials of the Text Book Production and Marketing (TBP&M) department in Odisha said that some work of printing new books was given to private presses at a cost of Rs 21 crore. He said that TBP&M alone could not meet the entire requirement of printing so many books. Meanwhile, Odisha’s School and Mass Education Minister Nityanand Gond said that after making necessary corrections in the books, new revised pages were prepared. These revised pages will be distributed to all schools and district education officers. These pages will be used as official study material. Students will continue to use these additional revised pages along with the old books.
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