Bhubaneswar, June 30 (IANS) The opposition Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has upped the ante against the state government, intensifying its demand for the resignation of School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond over the errors in the newly published textbooks for classes I to VIII.

On Tuesday, members of the Biju Yuva Janata Dal (BYJD) and Biju Chhatra Janata Dal (BCJD), the youth and student wings of the BJD, staged a peaceful demonstration in Bhubaneswar demanding the minister’s resignation and a CBI probe into the textbook errors.

Meanwhile, expressing serious concern over the issue, Leader of Opposition and BJD president Naveen Patnaik wrote on his X handle that school textbooks are not just books but the first source of truth for every child.

“A child may question many things, but never the words printed in a school textbook. Those words are an article of absolute faith and trust. Through textbooks, an entire generation learns not only facts but also builds faith in the system and trust in society,” said Patnaik.

He further said that when such trust is compromised, the damage extends far beyond a mere printing error, striking at the very foundation of children’s education and future.

“The callous handling of school textbooks by the Odisha BJP government has betrayed that sacred trust. The victims are lakhs of students, the future generation of Odisha – the torchbearers of tomorrow. By printing error-ridden textbooks and then flip-flopping on their withdrawal, we are shaking the very foundation of our children’s tomorrow,” Patnaik alleged.

The BJD supremo also questioned who would restore the shattered trust of an entire generation of Odia children even if the textbooks were corrected in the next edition.

“A government may correct a textbook in the next edition. But who will take responsibility for the cost of shattering the faith of an entire generation of Odia children? Who will answer for the wound inflicted on their trust, a wound that no revision can heal?” Patnaik added.

It may be recalled that Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi recently suspended four senior officials, including former Director of Teachers’ Training and the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Manoj Padhi, and initiated disciplinary proceedings against six others after receiving the inquiry report submitted by a committee headed by the Development Commissioner to examine the textbook errors.

The textbook controversy erupted after nearly 1,678 errors were identified in the newly published textbooks, drawing criticism from opposition parties and educationists.

–IANS

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