Kashmir is a different country: Bihar question paper gaffe

Taking up responsibility, officials called it a printing error

NEW DELHI: Bihar education is back in news again. This time it is for calling Kashmir a “different country”.

The question paper for Class 7 students in Bihar’s government schools allegedly asked a fill-in-the-bank question: “What are the people of following countries called?”

The sub-questions contained the following: “The people of Kashmir are called the....”

This option was combined with other countries such as China, Nepal, England, etc.

The students were appearing for the half-yearly assessment test given by Bihar education project council (BEPC).

Taking up responsibility, BEPC officials called it a printing error that occurred due to a missing word. The original question was supposed to contain “countries/states”. 

The BEPC looks after the implementation of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, under the right to education (RTE) act. The agency is currently assessing the requirement of two-exams-a-year system aimed at improving state education standards.

The assessment is being conducted over 70,000 government schools in Bihar.