‘Examiners should set right questions to avoid raising controversies’

KUCHING: Examiners should be sensitive in setting the right questions to avoid arousing controversies, said Jonathan Chai, president of Federation of Boards of Management for Aided Chinese Primary Schools of Kuching, Samarahan and Serian Divisions.

He opined that questions set by the examination board should not carry any tendency to arouse controversies and disputes.

“I think our minister of education would be in a better position to respond to this especially as he is also an Islamic scholar.

“I don’t know what should be expected from students who enrolled to study Islamic studies, but like any other subjects, examiners should be sensitive in setting the right questions in the examination.

“Questions which tend to arouse controversies and disputes should be avoided,” he said yesterday when asked to comment on a tweet recently posted by litigation lawyer Siti Kasim.

Of late, Siti asked in a Twitter post about a question in the Sept/ Oct 2018 model examination paper for the Form Five Islamic Studies subject that wanted students to ponder permissible ways to ‘hit a disobedient wife’.

In the tweet, Siti asked: “Is this what our Malay children (are) learning in school? What is this Dr Maszlee Malik? Is this acceptable? What kind of trash are we teaching the kids in school?” she asked, referring to the Education Minister.

Presented in the form of a flowchart, the controversial question comes with a header that reads ‘Cara memukul isteri yang nusyuz’ (Ways to hit a disobedient wife).

The question carries three separate boxes under the header, with two of them filled and one left blank.

The two boxes state – ‘ Not too overboard that it would cause injury’ and ‘Not on sensitive areas’ and the last one requires students to fill in their own permissible way.