Chhattisgarh: Education department suspends headmistress over controversial question in class 4 examination

RAIPUR: Action initiated against a government school headmistress, and a contractual teacher in Chhattisgarh, after a class 4 examination paper set and moderated by the duo, stirred a major row in state’s Mahasamund district with Hindu activists and parents strongly objecting to one of the question asked in the paper, involving name of Bhagwan Ram.

Disciplinary proceeding has been initiated to dismiss Namrata Verma, a contractual teacher who moderated the class 4 question paper, while the headmistress of government school, Nakti under Tilda block has also been suspended.

Action against the duo was initiated on the report of the five-member committee constituted by the department to probe the incident, said an official on January 10.

The suspended headmistress, Sikha Soni in her reply has admitted the mistake as a typo-error, stating that the word ‘Ram’ was mistakenly printed instead of Ramu due to omission of letter ‘U’. She has further clarified that her intention was not to hurt anyone’s religious sentiments and expressed regret over the incident.

Verma, who was tasked with preparing one of the two sets of the question papers received from district education officer also admitted that she failed to notice the options properly and retained them as it is. She however, said that the mistake was unintentional.

A multi-choice question asked in half yearly examination of class 4 of government schools on January 6 sparked a major row in Mahasamund district. The question – ‘What is the name of Mona’s dog’ had multiple choice answers including ‘Ram’.

This stirred a major controversy with Hindu activists and parents protesting against the education department for the lapse. The workers had also submitted a memorandum to the administration, demanding strict action against those involved in approving the question paper.

The education department following the protest, had issued a show-cause notice to Mahasamund DEO, Vijay Lahre and later constituted a five-member committee to investigate the matter.

Credit : Organiser Weekly