All the cramming and revision had not prepared them for this. An insensitive question in the Urdu paper on the first day of theHSC board examination left students traumatized and their parents and teachers fuming. The 80-mark paper’s nine mandatory questions included a strange assignment of 4 marks — “Write a letter to your younger brother condoling the sudden death of your father”.
Sarjerao Jadhav, state board chairman, told TOI that the board has initiated an inquiry. “We have found out the paper-setter and a letter has been sent to the college management where the paper-setter works. This question is on a very sensitive topic and shouldn’t have been in the question paper. We will take appropriate action,” Jadhav said.
On February 21, the assignment stunned many students. Among them was Sheikh Uzma Abdullah, who took a few minutes to gather her wits before penning the letter. “My father is alive. How could they ask me to write such a letter? I was on the verge of tears while imagining my father’s death and telling my brother not to mourn,” Abdullah said.
For Qureishi Saima Farooqui, the trauma was different. “I lost my father when I was little. Answering this question made me think of him and I felt sad,” said Farooqui of a junior college in central Mumbai.
Students said writing the letter was emotionally draining. “I didn’t expect to be asked to condole my father’s death on the very first day of my examination. Like everyone else, I love my father and condoling his death while he is alive pained me,” said Siddiqui Nausheen Mohammed Khalid, a student from a junior college in Mumbra. Nausheen’s mother Naghma is equally angry. “How could the question-setter be so insensitive and careless? There are so many ways to test a student’s proficiency in writing letters. I am sad that my daughter was among those who suffered this trauma,” said Naghma.
Teachers maintained that question-setters must be sensitive to students’ sentiments at a time when there is already so much pressure on them. “We teach students to be creative while answering questions, especially while writing letters. Students get involved and write creative pieces as if a certain event has actually taken place. Asking them to have a morbid thought at the exam hall is certainly not a good method to test students’ creativity,” said Najma Qazi, principal of Anjuman-e-Islam’s Saif Tayyabji Girls High School and Junior College at Mumbai Central.
In the past as well, the state board was faced with a similar situation where an unseen passage question in a language paper seemed to show a minority community in poor light. After a huge protest by activists, the state board was forced to set up an inquiry and the paper-setter was suspended.
HSC Urdu shocker: In letter, condole dad’s death - The Times of India
and once I was exposed to pitai due to mis-spelling of Muslim scientists names such as Jabir Bin Hayyan, Yaqoob Al-kindhi