The Odisha school textbook fiasco

There is a lot of brouhaha going on in Odisha about ridiculous and trivial errors in Odia text books in the vernacular medium schools. After looking at few of them, some outrightly funny I didn't know whether I would laugh or cry ! Regardless, nothing could be more atrociously disgusting than this.

Mass Education is a sine qua non of a healthy society. A child's education is very important to the growth of his or her mind and shaping the child's future. And the teachers and school curriculum form the salient part of it. A few errata here and there are acceptable. But there are 1600 errors already identified. What's not acceptable is teaching Isaac Newton was a pilot who flew Airplanes, a popular Bollywood song "Nimbuda Nimbuda.." presented as a Rajasthani song in Odia script in Class V English textbook. Niyamgiri Hills of Odisha was shown as part of Jharkhand in Geography book. Wheat was written as paddy, temperature as pressure and equinox as equator, not to mention enormous number of typos. Errors are way too many and to mention them all is beyond scope of this blog.

The response of the state government so far is tardy and miserable. As expected it is in denial mode with the Chief Minister of the state blaming it on conspiracy by his rivals to give him and his government a bad name. The opposition parties have rallied around to embarrass the ruling party. The blame game continues.

Now coming from a family of teachers this fiasco not only annoys me, it hurts me a lot. I am sure a lot of those who are reading this blog are on the same page with me. The fault not just lies with the books, its with the entire system which is both inept and corrupt. The quality of teaching has gone down as teachers are paid in peanuts and teaching is no longer a respected profession.

Decades ago there was this incident, when a sub-collector in Sonepur district of Odisha did this shameful, cowardly act of kicking a hapless school teacher, abusing him as a poor MASTRA (the way the word master is often pronounced in Odia, a term mostly used in derogatory sense for teachers back home). I remember a cartoon related to the above incident which came out on the local vernacular Newspaper with  following caption, (rhyming with our famous Sloka "GURU BRAHMA GURU BISHNU... "

GURU DEENA GURU HEENA
GURU SAMANYA MASTARA;
KANDOOKA SAMAN GURU
TASME SRHEE GOITHA MARA
ITI UPA- COLLECTOR
JILLA NAMA SONAPUR.

Transliterating in the same rhyme form to keep the theme intact,

"Teacher is poor, Teacher is mere;
Teacher is just an ordinary Master.
Teacher is akin to a football;
To be kicked for sure.
Courtesy Sub-Collector,
From the district of Sonepur."

I have heard parents asking in Odia to their children "KIRE MASTRA AJI KANA PADHEILA" meaning "Hey, what did the master teach you today". The English transliteration may not sound so bad but the way it is delivered in the native language is not a sign of great adulation. It shows the respect the guardians of the students give to their teachers.

My simple take - A society which does not respect its teachers can never prosper. Period. Great nations are made by great men. Great men (and women) are shaped by their teachers. Hope a public apology is issued, these errors are rectified and appropriate legal actions taken against the culprits. The sooner it is done, the better it is.