The BBC reports that according to a statement by the OCR exam board, the body responsible for the GSCE science exam for English high schools, schools may not cross out questions on the exams which contradict their religious beliefs. The statement was made in response to two cases of exam redaction which occurred last summer.
A spokesman for the exam watchdog explained that although the instances of redactions have been rare, they should still not be permitted. “Denying learners access to all the questions on a paper prevents the candidate achieving their full potential and therefore disadvantages them. It also threatens the validity of the qualification,” says the spokesman.
(Aliza Levine – YWN)
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9 Responses
Its silly to change the questions or ignore the questions. If evolution is wrong, then show the students whats wrong with it. If it is not wrong, then teach it.
Smiley: That’s exactly what my Yeshiva high school did. Our non-jewish science teacher came in on the 1st day of school talking about how the earth is billions of years old. We all started yelling at him (like a bunch of teenage idiots) that it isn’t true. He then called in the Rosh Yeshiva who explained to us what the science world believes and gave us various explanations on how dating can coincide with the Torah, as well a other answers to similar questions. He walked out and class continued.
When will us frum Jews recognize the fact that we r a minority in the world? We can not expect the world to now to every whim.
The same BBC which reported that the OCR had stated that is was not in order to doctor exam papers, reported on 4 March as follows: “The examinations body, OCR, says it was satisfied that the girls (of the Yesodey Hatorah School)did not have an unfair advantage. It now plans to allow the practice (of removing questions from exam papers) saying it has come to an agreement with the school to protect the future integrity of the exams.”
Which BBC report should one believe?
Either way if the school gets signatures from pupils and parents that they do not mind it is not a problem!! The above story was for a muslim school. The orthodox Jewish schools have not had this problem due to the signatures!
Smiley: The test requires students to answer “correctly” with the kefiradik answers. Even if you teach the children otherwise they will get marked a wrong answer on the State test if they don’t answer per the kefira.
Scientific facts can not and do not contradict Judaism. If they did, Judaism would be chas v’shalom a false religion. There is ample support within our mesorah for non-literal readings of our scripture and indeed Jews have never mandated fundamentalist literalism the way that much of Christianity has.
Mr. Hall: “Scientific facts” are not necessary facts or proven beyond doubt. And often they are later overturned by new “scientific facts” that contradict the earlier “facts”.
And you cannot reinterpret the Torah to be “non-literal” where it has been accepted as literal throughout the Mesorah.