After Furore, CBSE Withdraws Misogynistic Question from Class 10 Paper

New Delhi: A day after excerpts of paragraphs disparaging women in a Term-1 English question paper did rounds on social media and attracted the ire of politicians, teachers, and students alike, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to withdraw the question and award full marks.

CBSE on Tuesday expressed regret and termed the ill-framed question an “unfortunate incident.” Section A of the Class 10 paper, held on Saturday, contained an unseen passage that mentioned in its closing paragraph: “What people were slow to observe was that the emancipation of the wife destroyed the parent’s authority over the children.”

The passage as a whole seemed to draw a link between “lack of parental authority in the home” and “the “emancipation of the wife.”

In an official statement, the Central Board said: “CBSE is committed to equity and excellence in education and promotes inclusiveness and gender sensitivity. CBSE has dropped a passage and accompanying questions which were asked in English term-1 paper for Class X as it was not in adherence with guidelines issued by the board for external paper setters.”

“CBSE regrets the unfortunate incident and is setting up an expert committee to thoroughly review and strengthen the question paper setting processes to avoid such occurrences in future,” the statement added.

This is not the first time CBSE has botched up a question paper in recent times. Earlier this month, in the Class 12 Sociology paper, students were asked to name the political party under which the “anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002” took place, a question the board later found “inappropriate” and against its guidelines.

Speaking to Times of India, a principal of a private school said, “We have co-ed schools and one of the aims of education is to empower the girl child to be independent in future. Such obsolete ideas finding their way in a board exam paper is shocking.” Subject matter experts also feel that standards set by CBSE are now under the scanner as technology-wise, the Board has the capacity to rectify errors even at a late hour.

“Question papers are now online. Till 6 AM on exam day, CBSE can easily make changes,” another principal told the media house.

Demanding an apology from the Central government, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi lashed out at the “atrocious” paragraphs in the question paper during the zero hour of the Parliament yesterday, and added that a review was immediately needed to correct such a “grave lapse.”

“I add my voice to the concerns of students, parents, teachers and educationists, and I raise strong objection to such blatantly misogynist material finding its way into an important examination conducted by the CBSE. It reflects extremely poorly on the standards of education and testing and it goes against all norms and principles of… empowered society,” Gandhi said.

However, the government’s refusal to make a statement in response to Sonia’s demand got the Opposition — including the Congress, DMK and Left parties – to walk out of the House in protest.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also expressed his reaction on Twitter, writing that: “Most CBSE papers so far were too difficult and the comprehension passage in the English paper was downright disgusting. Typical RSS-BJP ploys to crush the morale and future of the youth. Kids, do your best. Hard work pays. Bigotry doesn’t.”

Meanwhile, The Indian Express has learnt that the Ministry of Education has written to the CBSE, seeking a detailed explanation. “The CBSE has been asked to respond on an urgent basis,” an official said. Another official said the Board was taken aback by the development as the person responsible for the lapse has been handling the task of setting up question papers for over two decades.