CBSE removes gender insensitive passage from class X English exam

After strong protest from all quarters, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has removed the controversial comprehension passage from class 10 English board exam paper that made regressive comments on families, women and disciplining children.

The Board also announced that full marks will be given to all students for “passage No. 1 for all sets of the Class 10 CBSE English Language and Literature”. This decision was taken considering the fact that different comprehension passages had been featured in other question paper sets.

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The final paragraph of the passage in English paper of the Term-1 Class X CBSE board read: “What people were slow to observe was that the emancipation of the wife destroyed the parent’s authority over the children. The mother did not exemplify the obedience upon which she still tried to insist… In bringing the man down from his pedestal the wife and the mother deprived herself, in fact of the means of discipline.”

The passage drew public ire for being “retrograde” and offensive to women. The CBSE then referred the matter to a committee of subject experts. On Monday (December 13), the committee recommended that the passage be dropped. The CBSE accepted the committee’s recommendation and immediately issued a notice.

Earlier, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and former President Rahul Gandhi came down heavily on the CBSE and the Centre and demanded withdrawal of the gender-insensitive passage in the English paper of the Class 10 CBSE exam.  Rahul Gandhi tweeted: “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,” he tweeted. “Hard work pays. Bigotry doesn’t.”

The Opposition even walked out of the Lok Sabha and sought a review of the entire CBSE curriculum.