A French textbook used in Luxembourg's 7e general secondary classes has been withdrawn after a printing error repeatedly referred to an exercise as "Anal Activity" instead of "Final Activity".
The book, Imagine Luxembourg, was designed to help pupils practise spoken French. On several pages, however, the section titled 'Activité Finale' (final activity)* appeared incorrectly as 'Activité Anale' (anal activity). Education sources told RTL that this was not the only mistake in the book.
It is thought to be a typography error, as there are several instances in the book where the letters "fi" and "fl" do not appear at all in special fonts.
According to the Ministry of Education, the errors were introduced during a reprint of the 2025 edition due to technical problems at the publisher. The issue arose only after the manuscript had already been approved for printing.
"These errors are unacceptable and have no place in a school textbook", ministry spokesperson Myriam Bamberg said. "At the ministry's request, the publisher – who alone is responsible – is recalling all affected copies and replacing them."
It is not yet clear when corrected books will be distributed, though the publisher has promised to act "as quickly as possible". In the meantime, students and teachers are being given access to a digital version of the book, with printed copies also being considered as a temporary solution.
The ministry has stressed that responsibility lies entirely with the publisher, as the approved manuscript did not contain the error. Legal action against the publisher is currently under consideration.
SCRIPT director Luc Weis told RTL that they had ordered the book without errors. The problem was later caused by technical manipulation when changing the resolution. The publisher has already committed to having the 2,000-2,500 affected books reprinted at their own expense.
The affected edition is the 2025 reprint (ISBN 9782278111725). Officials believe the mistake will not disrupt teaching.
Errors observed in maths books
Other printing errors were spotted in books assigned to mathematics students in 2e, the penultimate year of secondary school. In this instance, the book binder had accidentally swapped pages from two exercise books for different classes, placing pages 81-96 from Volume 3 in Volume 4 and vice versa.
However, the books are not being withdrawn. Instead, SCRIPT has arranged for the missing pages to be printed in a supplementary booklet to be distributed to all pupils affected. Luc Weis underlined that these additional costs would be covered by the book binder and would not come from taxpayers.
*Editors' note: In the initial report RTL stated that the section was titled 'Activité Orale' (oral activity) however this was incorrect and was 'Activité Finale' (final activity).
