MCQ Blunder: RU to punish two teachers

Rajshahi University on Wednesday decided to take punitive action against two teachers of the fine arts faculty for their involvement in making and selecting controversial multiple-choice questions for its admission test.

The university decided to bar Prof Mustafizur Rahman, dean of the fine arts faculty and also convener of the question-making committee, and Zillur Rahman, an assistant professor of printmaking and oriental art department and a member of the committee, from taking part in any examination process of the university for 10 years.

In addition, a five-year delay is to be  slapped on M Zillur's next promotion.

The decision was made at the 474th syndicate meeting, said Mamun Abdul Kaioum, a syndicate member.

The meeting also made a primary decision to remove Prof Mustafizur as the dean, he said.

On October 28, RU formed a four-member committee to investigate the matter. The committee was asked to submit its report in 15 days.

Pro-Vice-Chancellor Prof Anand Kumar Saha leads the committee with Prof M Shahidullah of English department, Abu Bakar M Ismail of applied physics and electronic engineering department and Prof Nazrul Islam of chemistry department as its members.

The freshmen aspirants on October 25 were asked to answer the multiple-choice question: "What is the name of the greatest book in the world?"

The options were: A) The Holy Quran, B) The Holy Bible, C) The Holy Injil and D) Gita.

This left the admission seekers baffled.

Another question was: "When did the Myanmar army and the Buddhists launch an armed attack on the Rohingya Muslims?"

There was outrage on campus and criticism in social media with many blasting the university authorities for coming up with the "extremely communal" questions.