Questions, even difficult ones, are indispensable to education and learning. That’s why it is disturbing to see the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) twist itself into a spot by first calling a question in its Class XII Term 1 sociology test an error, then apologising for it and, finally, promising “strict action” against those “responsible”.
The multiple-choice question that prompted the CBSE’s unnecessary remorse was: “The unprecedented scale and spread of anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002 took place under which government?” The options for the student to choose were “Congress”, “BJP”, “Democratic” and “Republican”. In a Twitter apology, the CBSE said a question violated guidelines that instruct paper-setters to ensure that “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.” The question has been drawn from a chapter in an NCERT textbook for Class XII, which discussed the “two most traumatic contemporary instances of communal violence” — the Delhi anti-Sikh violence of 1984 under a Congress government at the Centre, and the anti-Muslim violence in 2002 Gujarat under a BJP government headed by then chief minister Narendra Modi. The board’s distinction between academic worth and “sentiments of people” is a specious one. Why is a question about one of the most shameful episodes of communal violence in India out of place in a sociology paper for Class XII students? Would a question about the 1984 violence under Congress been less objectionable? Or is it the case that someone in CBSE felt that its political masters may not be pleased with the question?
This editorial first appeared in the print edition on December 3, 2021 under the title ‘Bad education’.
