Disputed question dropped from 10 class CBSE English paper: Subhas Sarkar

New Delhi, Feb 7 (FN Agency) Union Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar informed that the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has expressed regret for the inadvertent lapse in passage of one set of question paper in Class 10 English Language and Literature Exam held on December 11, last year. The Minister made the statement in Lok Sabha in response to the question by Haji Fazlur Rehman over a dispute on a question relating to women in Class 10 board exam in English paper. Rehman asked whether there has been a dispute over a question relating to women in the 10 board exam paper of English subject conducted by CBSE. Has any action been taken in this regard.

Sarkar replied that the passage and related questions were dropped and it was decided to award full marks to all the students in both the sets of Question Papers. As CBSE is committed to excellence in education and promotes inclusiveness and gender sensitivity, some actions have been taken including Paper Setters and Moderators who were involved in the preparation of question papers have been debarred as guidelines for setting of Question Papers were not followed by them. Paper setting process is highly confidential and to maintain secrecy, outside and experienced subject experts are engaged for this work and CBSE officials are not directly involved. CBSE has constituted a committee of experts headed by former Controller of Examinations and experts from other educational institutions for strengthening the paper setting process to avoid such occurrences. CBSE has sensitised all the external paper setters regarding the quality of the question papers, Sarkar added.