The class 10 Mathematics textbooks prepared by the State Council of Education and Research Training (SCERT) for the academic year 2014-15 have been found to be riddled with more than 180 typos, spelling and grammatical mistakes.
The errors were detected by Rama Krishna Adury, resource person, Oxford University Press and professor-in-charge, National Standard Exams in the State. A compilation of all the errors by him reveal that there are grammatical errors from the first page to the last, with some mistakes being repeated in different pages as well.
‘Aryabhatt’ (Aryabhatta), ‘seheme’ (scheme), ‘similaly’ (similarly), ‘preceeding’ (preceding), ‘consecitive’ (consecutive), ‘parllel’ (parallel), prependicular (perpendicular), ‘hemiphere’ (hemisphere), ‘porton’ (portion), ‘molton’ (molten), are some among the grammatical errors in the textbook. “It is the 10 class mathematics textbook for the board exams and those mistakes are awful,” said Prof. Adury.
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Prof. Adury, who trains school teachers in the pedagogy of teaching, mentioned that he simply decided to review the book, as he is also a math teacher. “I was shocked to see so many mistakes in a book compiled by experts. The errors can change the context and mislead students,” pointed out Prof Adury, also a post-graduate in Mathematics.
According to the book, which was printed in October, 2013, the Chairperson for Position Paper and Mathematics Curriculum and Textbook Development was Prof. V. Kannan, department of mathematics and statistics, Hyderabad Central University (HCU), and chief advisors were: Chukka Ramaiah, eminent scholar in mathematics and Dr. H. K. Dewan, educational advisor, Vidya Bhavan Society, Rajasthan, who was also the chief editor.
When contacted, G. Gopal Reddy, Director, SCERT, said that there will be a review of the textbook by the editorial board, along with school teachers to rectify errors in the next two months. The revised book, however, can only be printed next year.
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“All our district education officers will inform school teachers about the errors,” he mentioned, when asked how his department will tackle the issue for the current academic year.