HSC Physics book sheds new light on errors

There seems to be no end to errors cropping up in state board textbooks and the problem, say many teachers, is leaving a bad impression on students.

After a series of errors were found in the History and Geography textbooks of Std X students and in the Std III Geography textbook, students and teachers have now pointed out an error on the back cover of the Std XII Physics textbook (see box) this year, apart from other blunders in it.

"While the error looks minor, the fact that it is on a textbook meant for over 14 lakh HSC students across the state, and officiated by the Maharashtra state board, is really sad," said Parth Mehta, an HSC student. Physics professors in colleges across the city said that, besides this, there are also several other minor typing errors in the textbook.

"Mutual inductance diagram is very basic and is taught to students from Std X onwards. Most colleges have asked students to ignore the diagram on the cover of the textbook," said S Sharma, a physics professor from a Bandra-based junior college.

"My students have clearly been asked to refer to either the previous edition of the subject or other books authored by physicists. The quality of the new textbooks is so bad that I chose not to teach from that book," said Mrudul Marathe, a physics professor at Sathaye College, Vile Parle.

She added that students nowadays also depend on online courses from universities like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which are easily available on the Web. "For us students, textbooks are the go-to books, but with silly spelling errors it becomes difficult to concentrate.

Though our professor highlights the errors, we hardly have time to correct errors and study. We are preparing for board exams as well as competitive exams," said Jayson Lobo, another HSC student.