Bhubaneswar: School and mass education department on Monday began distributing revised textbooks for classes I to VIII after incorporating corrections following a review of errors found in the books. The department supplied over 44,000 corrected books on the first day, replacing copies in which errors had been detected after schools reopened in June.The first phase covered Odia textbooks for classes II to VI and Urdu books for classes VI to VIII. Of the total books distributed, 41,150 were Odia textbooks and 3,150 were Urdu textbooks.The initial distribution covered schools in Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Cuttack areas, officials said.The revised textbooks will be supplied to schools in other districts in a phased manner over the coming days. “We had provided a corrigendum for schools to refer to while teaching students while the proofreading and corrections were underway. Schools in the first-phase areas will receive the revised copies first, while supplies to other districts will follow according to the distribution schedule,” an official said.The department had launched an extensive proofreading and correction exercise for textbooks from classes I to VIII after multiple errors were found in the books introduced as part of the state’s implementation of National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 for the 2026-27 academic session.The exercise followed concerns over factual, language and printing errors in the textbooks. Govt subsequently ordered a detailed scrutiny of the books and incorporation of the necessary corrections before fresh copies were printed.The controversy over the textbooks also prompted govt to stress greater scrutiny and proofreading at different stages of textbook preparation and publication. Four officials of the department were suspended after 1,678 errors were found in the textbooks.The next edition of the textbooks will be printed for the next academic session, OSEPA officials said.