The Central Board of Secondary Education has said that it will take strict action against responsible persons after a question asked in the class 12 exams triggered outrage. The question in Term 1 exam for the first class 12 exams under board exams 2022 had asked to name the political party under whose regime the Gujarat riots in 2002 took place.

The CBSE Wednesday evening put out a statement that a question in its class XII Sociology Term I Board examination held earlier in the day was “inappropriate” and that it would take action against “responsible persons”. According to a CBSE official, the question asked which government the “anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002” took place under.

“A question has been asked in today’s class 12 sociology Term 1 exam which is inappropriate and in violation of the CBSE guidelines for external subject experts for setting question papers. CBSE acknowledges the error made and will take strict action against the responsible persons,” the CBSE tweeted.

In a second tweet, it added, “The CBSE guidelines for paper setters clearly state that they have to ensure the questions should be academic oriented only and should not touch upon domains that could harm sentiments of people based on social and political choices.”

Question number 23 in the Sociology paper asked, “The unprecedented scale and spread of anti-muslim violence in Gujarat in 2022 took place under which government?”, and had the options Congress, BJP, Democratic and Republican to choose from as the answer.

After the image of the question appeared, it created an outrage on social media, as the question has been deemed highly inappropriate.

Netizens commented that CBSE is creating Hindu-Muslim conflict in the mind the children and motivating them to hate BJP.  Some also pointed out that CBSE was asking an anti-BJP question when BJP is in power at the centre.

Reacting to the widespread criticism, CBSE issued a statement saying that the question was inappropriate and in violation of the CBSE guidelines. The statement posted on social media said, “A question has been asked in today’s class 12 sociology Term 1 exam which is inappropriate and in violation of the CBSE guidelines for external subject experts for setting question papers”.

Saying that strict actions will be taken for this ‘error’, the central secondary education body further said, “CBSE acknowledges the error made and will take strict action against the responsible persons”.

Further explaining the policy for setting question papers, the CBSE wrote, “The CBSE guidelines for paper setters clearly state that they have to ensure the questions should be academic oriented only and should be class, religion neutral and should not touch upon domains that could harm sentiments of people based on social and political choices.”

The CBSE Class 12 Term 1 board exam 2022 started on November 16, and will conclude on December 30. Candidates are appearing for the minor subjects in this exam. Students have to mark their answers on OMR sheets as all questions are in multiple-choice format.

References:

opindia.com - OpIndia Staff
indianexpress.com - by Sukrita Baruah | New Delhi