Follow procedure to prevent racist exam questions, says NUTP

NUTP president Hashim Adnan says setting racist examination questions is shameful and cannot be forgiven. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Najjua Zulkefli, September 21, 2014.

While the source of a racist-toned test question that went viral on social media remains a mystery, the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) says there are standard procedures that teachers must follow when setting examination questions.

NUTP president Hashim Adnan said if the controversial question had been set for a school examination, it was a grave error as it meant that standard operating procedures had been broken.

"An exam paper is reviewed and checked by different people before it is given to students.

"After a teacher sets the question paper, it will‎ then be handed to the teacher in charge of the subject in the school to be checked. Following that, the senior assistant who heads the curriculum will look at it as well – to see whether the questions are appropriate for the students," he told The Malaysian Insider.

It would be unprofessional if teachers were to set racist questions for students, he said, adding that it was shameful and “cannot be forgiven”.

Hashim was commenting on a question in Bahasa Malaysia that had been photographed and shared on social media recently. The question asks students to match a list of good values to a race.

The Education Ministry in a statement to The Sun Daily newspaper denied that the question had been part of the Bahasa Malaysia paper in the national Year Six UPSR examination.

"We received complaints about the matter on September 8, before the UPSR Bahasa Malaysia exam. The ministry would like to confirm that it was neither a question in the exam paper nor does the ministry have any role in formulating the question," a ministry spokesman had told The Sun Daily.

The ministry, however, did not reveal if it knew where the question was published.

While its spread on social media angered many, parents have also come out to confirm that the question was not part of the Bahasa Malaysia paper in the recent UPSR examination.

Hashim reminded teachers to be careful and to check for such instances when preparing examination questions.

"There are times when teachers can be swamped with too many exam papers that they just glance through and give their seal of approval. Sometimes, they may not even look," he added.

Hashim said that teachers should stay away from racial issues in classrooms and in examination papers as it would be detrimental to their students.

"It was not a very intelligent question and it was very unprofessional to have given such a question to students whom they have been entrusted with," he said.

"It cannot be forgiven."

The ministry had also said that it condemned the "irresponsible parties" who were taking advantage of the current situation‎ to spread rumours.

The ministry has come under fire recently following leaks in the English and Science UPSR examination papers, affecting more than 470,000 pupils who will have to resit the papers on September 30.

- TMI