Question Paper Raw: Should CBSE need to strengthen the question setting process?

Educationists believe that CBSE needs more staff, especially in the moderation unit, so that people working there should not feel stressed and commit errors.

The Central Board of Secondary Education has recently courted controversy because of objectionable content in the question papers of English and Sociology for Class 10th and Class 12th respectively.

The English question paper had a passage where students were expected to read and answer questions based on that. However, the content was insensitive and objectionable as it lowered the dignity of women.

One of the controversial paragraphs in the question paper of English for class 10th reads, “It was only by accepting her husband’s sway that she could gain obedience from the young. The decision might be hers but unpopularity was his, the more easily borne in that he might not be there. To precepts about subordination she thus added the potent force of an example. Children and servants were in this way taught to know their place.”

Another question in Sociology for class 12 asked, “The unprecedented scale and spread of anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002 took place under which government?"

All these have forced CBSE to apologise and review the question paper setting process so that such things should not happen in future. Educationists also believe that CBSE needs more staff, especially in the moderation unit, so that people working there should not feel stressed.

“These lapses happen due to two reasons. Either you don’t have adequate time to follow all the processes or there is a crunch of human resources to ensure all the checks and balances. I think if you resolve one of the two, the problem will not come in the future,” a senior educationist associated with the paper setting process in the past said.