The Central Bureau of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Monday dropped a comprehension passage and the accompanying questions from the Class 10 English examination and decided to award full marks for it to students, following an outrage over the board allegedly promoting “gender stereotyping” and supporting “regressive notions”. The CBSE’s dropping the controversial passage came after Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday slammed the government for endorsing “retrograde views on women”.
The CBSE had referred the matter to subject experts on Sunday and sought their feedback. In the Class-10 exam conducted on Saturday, the question paper carried a comprehension passage with sentences such as “emancipation of women destroyed the parents’ 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.
Excerpts from the passage have gone viral on social media platforms with users calling out the board for supporting ‘misogynistic’ and ‘regressive opinions’ and the hashtag ‘#CBSEinsultswomen’ trending on Twitter. “A passage in one set of English language and literature paper of CBSE Class-10 first-term examination held on December 11 is not in accordance with the guidelines of the board with regard to the setting of question papers. “In this backdrop and on the basis of the feedback received from the stakeholders, the matter was referred to a committee of subject experts. According to its recommendation, it has been decided to drop the passage and the accompanying questions,” CBSE Examination Controller Sanyam Bhardwaj said. “Full marks will be awarded for this passage to all the students concerned. To ensure uniformity and parity, full marks will also be awarded to students for passage number one for all sets of the question paper,” he added.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Congress president Sonia Gandhi demanded immediate withdrawal of the objectionable question and a review into the “gravest lapse”.
Seeking clarification on the issue raised by Gandhi, members of the Congress, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Indian Union Muslim League, the Nationalist Congress Party and the National Conference walked out of the House.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also hit out at the CBSE over the comprehension passage, terming it as ‘disgusting’ and a ‘ploy’ of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-Bharatiya Janata Party (RSS-BJP) to crush the morale and future of the youth. In a tweet, Rahul said, “Most CBSE papers so far were too difficult and the comprehension passage in the English paper was downright disgusting..”