Gender Stereotyping And Full Of Errors, CBSE Class 10 English Board Exam Question Paper Under Fire
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)?on Monday said it has dropped a comprehension passage and the accompanying questions from the Class-10 English exam paper and decided to award full marks for it to students, following an outrage over the board allegedly promoting "gender stereotyping" and supporting "regressive notions".
CBSE had referred the matter to subject experts on Sunday and sought their feedback?after the English question paper for Class 10 raised more questions than answers.
One of the several questions that are now under the scanner is a comprehension passage that many said was promoting "gender stereotyping" and supporting "regressive notions".
It had sentences like "emancipation of women destroyed the parent's authority over the children" and "it was only by accepting her husband's way that a mother could gain obedience over the younger ones", among others.
Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also took to Twitter objecting to the question paper.
"Unbelievable! Are we really teaching children this drivel? Clearly the BJP Government endorses these retrograde views on women, why else would they feature in the CBSE curriculum?" she said.
Lakshmi Ramachandran, spokesperson of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee, said, "This outrageously nonsensical reading passage appeared in the 10th CBSE board exam paper today. What are we teaching our children? CBSE has to give an explanation and tender an apology for inflicting our children with this".
"Class 10 CBSE English paper today says children and servants must be taught their place and women gaining some independence destroyed parents authority over children. Entire passage is so stupid. Who are these idiots setting question paper in CBSE," another Twitter user said.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had issued a statement saying," The passage in one set of the English paper of CBSE class 10 first term examination held yesterday has received mixed reactions from a few parents and students stating that 'it seems to support regressive notions on family and allegedly promotes gender stereotyping'".
"The matter will be referred to subject experts for considered views as per the pre set procedures of the board. As regards the correct answer option and the answer key released by the board, it is clarified that if the experts opine that the passage elicits multiple interpretations, appropriate action will be taken to protect the interest of the students," the board said.
Questions no 13 and 14 were also confusing, according to some students.
They allegedly had only options for answers but no questions.
“When I enquired from the invigilator about the error we were asked to ignore the questions,” a student said.
CBSE, however, said there was nothing wrong with the questions.?
“It may be noted that both the questions are correct and there is no ambiguity. The passage starts with the following statement- 'Read the passage given below and answer the questions/complete the statements that follow by choosing the most appropriate option out of the given ones. Questions are to be replied as per the instructions given and not in isolation," CBSE said in a statement.
A Twitter user also pointed out that the question paper had stated that Siliguri, a city in West Bengal as a city in Assam.
Earlier, the Class 12 sociology paper had asked students to name the party under which the “anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002” took place, a question the board later said was “inappropriate” and against its guidelines.?
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