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Ground Report | New Delhi: CBSE Controversial Question; The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Monday "abandoned" a controversial route that allegedly promoted regressive perceptions about women in the Class 10 examinations last week. The board has said that it will provide full marks for pass number 1 for all sets of question paper to ensure parity among all students.
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CBSE Controversial Question
A passage from the question paper read: “What people were slow to observe was that the emancipation of the wife destroyed the parent’s authority over children,” read a part of the passage. “It was only by accepting her husband’s sway that she (wife) could gain obedience from the young."
It read, "It was her best plan, to fall back on the authority saying, 'Your father has forbidden it'. Children and servants were in this way taught to know their place". "In the 20th century became fewer and feminist revolt was the result. Father's word had no longer the authority of holy writ and married women now retained their identity and some pursued separate careers". The passage concluded that the 'emancipation of the wife destroyed the parent's authority over children. In bringing the man down from his pedestal the wife and mother deprived herself, in fact, of the means of discipline'.
CBSE Issues Clarification
After facing criticism, CBSE issued a clarification, which read, "A set of English papers of CBSE Class X 1st session held yesterday has received mixed reactions from some parents and students, in which It is stated that "it supports the regressive assumptions". family and allegedly promotes gender stereotypes.
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The matter will be referred to the subject experts for their consideration as per the pre-determined procedures of the Board. As far as the correct answer option and release of answer key by the Board is concerned, it is clarified that if experts are of the view that there are multiple interpretations in the passage, appropriate action will be taken to protect the interest of the students.
Congress protests
On Sunday, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also raised the issue, calling the route a "drivel".
Priyanka Gandhi tweeted, "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?". The CBSE is currently scrutinising the matter and experts will decide on the correct answer as per interpretations.
Party leader Rahul Gandhi too termed the paper “downright disgusting”. Taking to Twitter, he said: “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.”
Another Congress MP, Jothimani, had also written to CBSE President Manoj Ahuja expressing anger and shock about this particular lesson. She said her letter in question contained "misogynistic, anti-women, anti-child rights views".
“I was stunned to read the passage given in the Reading Comprehension section of Class 10 CBSE examination held on 11.12.2021,” she wrote in her letter to the CBSE chief, highlighting certain statements like “The Emancipation of the Class”. The wife destroyed the authority of the parents over their children" and "taught the children and the servants … their place".
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