LAHORE – Thousands of people across the country are fuming over a controversial question paper by Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) in which the Matric students were asked to write an essay on the “personality of elder sister.”
While the 15-marks question in Functional English-II, Spring Semester 2016, for class Matric seems a bit odd and narrowly accepted, the “aspects” to be mentioned appear to be highly obnoxious as they include: Age, Physique, Height, Looks, and Attitude etc.
Netizens immediately took to the social media to express their anger and frustration over the “extremely vulgar, offensive, and stupid” question asked by the Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), which is named after the national poet of Pakistan, Dr Allama Muhammad Iqbal.
They say the essay question is unethical and against the norms of the society, besides demanding sacking of the teacher who designed the paper.
AIOU takes notice of inappropriate question in exam paper
“The head of the department must be sacked”, a social media user said.
“What bulls**t is this, a case must be registered against the culprit and he must be sent behind the bars,” another user suggested.
The AIOU’s controversial paper comes days after an elite school issued an official circular ‘banning Punjabi language’ inside and outside the school premises, sparking strong protests across the city.
Massive protests were staged outside the head branch of Beaconhouse Schools System in Lahore. The school, later on, formally apologized for the ‘miscommunication’.
In its clarification note, the school said the operative word, “curses”, was unfortunately missed in the circular.
“We have launched a full inquiry into this matter to identify how this lapse occurred in the first place, and why it was not identified by senior management,” the school said.
Students, who attempted the AIOU paper, said they were highly shocked to find such a question in the Matric exam.
“First I thought it was a mistake,” said a student, who talked to Daily Pakistan on the condition of anonymity. “When I asked the invigilator about the nature of [this] question, he simply refused to explain anything and asked me to finish my paper.”
When contacted, AIOU Registrar Dr. Naeem Qureshi refused to comment before conducting an official enquiry.
