DutchNews.nl - Minister scraps exam question after protest

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Minister scraps exam question after protest

Tuesday 19 May 2009

Junior education minister Marja van Bijsterveldt has scrapped a question from yesterday's pre-college level Dutch test because it was politically-biased, news agency ANP said on Tuesday.

Liberal party MPs had protested about the question, which used text from the VVD's website and asked politically-charged questions.

The exam paper stated that the text, about not smothering the jobless with social security benefits, was negative and condescending towards people claiming benefit. None of the six optional answers gave pupils the chance to disagree.

'Political preferences popping up in exams, whoever comes up with such a thing?, VVD MP Ineke Dezentjé said in Tuesday's Telegraaf. 'This is the school as the museum for left-wing ideas from the 1970s.'

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Readers' comments

The school as the museum for left-wing ideas from the 1970s...brilliant idea, Mr Plasterk are you listening?

By Truus van den berg | May 19, 2009 12:56 PM

I am not sure that either Bijsterveldt or Plasterk had seen and vetted the question. At least they did react appropriately by scrapping the question. It would have been nice if DutchNews nl. also published the six optional answers so that the readers could judge how politically biased the exercise really was.

By Chris Schoneveld | May 19, 2009 4:21 PM

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