Editor’s Note: Appalling exam question
This debacle occurred during the 16 Days of Activism against woman and child abuse
LACK of emotional sensitivity reached an all-time high this week when matrics writing a dramatic art paper were asked to describe how best an actor could ‘maximise the horror’ of a child rape incident, using a broomstick and a loaf of bread.
One wonders what would constitute the best or ‘right’ answer to the question.
The most graphic? The most crude? The most intense?
As if the act of rape is not brutal enough, pupils would be given marks for their description…and presumably lose marks if they did not give sufficient gruesome detail or dramatisation.
Who was so thoughtless as to attempt to turn rape into an art format, and assume a topic like rape could be analysed and answered objectively in an exam situation?
What is particularly upsetting is that the exam paper must have passed through the hands of many leading educationalists before it landed on the pupils’ desks.
Did nobody stop to think that among the pupils would be those who have lived through the nightmare of rape and would now have to do so again?
Did they have counsellors on standby in case the question triggered flash-backs for past victims?
It is even more upsetting that this debacle occurred during the 16 Days of Activism against woman and child abuse.
While organisations that deal daily with the horror of rape are this week calling out for more action and assistance from communities and authorities, the Department of Basic Education sees fit to take a serious work out of context and use it in a shockingly insensitive manner.
What next? Demonstrate how best you could dramatise domestic abuse attacks, using knives and pieces of iron?
Shame on you and your attempts to justify this callous question!
The public awaits and deserves an apology, especially the many rape victims.
