Indian education board CBSE drops controversial passage in English exam paper after outrage

New Delhi: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) yesterday dropped a controversial passage from a Class 10 English exam seen to be deeply misogynist, after outrage that also reached parliament.

Students will be given full marks for that question, the board said.

The passage had sentences like the “emancipation of the wife destroyed the parent’s authority over the children” and that “it was only by accepting her husband’s way that a mother could gain obedience over the younger ones”.

It also said that due to the “emancipation” of women, “there was more room now for disagreement between the parents, enabling the child to appeal from one to another, eventually ignoring both”. “In bringing the man down from his pedestal, the wife and mother deprived herself, in fact, of the means of discipline,” it added.

The CBSE, in a statement, said the passage is “not in accordance with the guidelines” and the passage and questions accompanying it have been dropped.

Earlier today, various parties in parliament labelled the passenger as “blatantly misogynist” and “disgusting”.

The Congress President Sonia Gandhi slammed the federal government and described the paper as ‘extremely poor’ standards of education and testing.

Raising this issue during the ‘Zero Hour’, she said that a ‘shockingly regressive passage’ on the women published in the Class 10 CBSE Examination held on December 11 was derogatory and regressive for women. She asked the CBSE to withdraw the question and tender an apology.

Quoting the text of the passage of the question paper in the House, she said, “Entire passage is riddled with such condemnable ideas and the questions that follow are equally nonsensical.” She strongly objected to such ‘blatantly misogynistic material’.

Seeking an apology from the CBSE, Sonia Gandhi also said that this passage reflects ‘extremely poorly on standards on education and testing’ and urged the Ministry of Education to immediately withdraw the question.

Earlier, the Congress party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also objected to the Class 10 CBSE English question paper and accused the BJP government of endorsing these retrograde views on women.

Also, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi called the paper “downright disgusting” and said that it was a “typical RSS-BJP ploy” to crush the morale and future of the youth.

The Congress leader also advised the students that only hard work pays, “bigotry doesn’t”.

Taking to Twitter, the Congress leader 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.”