Examiners in the UK failed a 16-year-old vegetarian student for making Islamophobic remarks criticizing the Islamic ritual slaughter of animals.
Abigail Ward of Gildredge House school in Eastbourne, East Sussex, was disqualified from her General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) exam after the examination board accused her of committing a “malpractice offence” by making “obscene racial comments… throughout an exam paper.”
According to The Telegraph, however, the student had only once remarked that she found Halal Islamic ritual slaughter practices “disgusting”.
The schoolgirl’s mother, Layla Ward, accused the examiner of being “over-zealous” and “over-righteous”, saying her daughter is “an animal lover and a very strict vegetarian.”
“It made me angry,” Ms Ward added. “When asked a question in the exam, you can’t even express your feelings.”
The school agreed to appeal the decision to the exam board, who eventually admitted the examiner’s description of “the frequency and severity of the comments was inaccurate.”
“We accept that initially we did not reach the right conclusion and were too harsh,” the board said. “We wish [the student] all the best for her GCSE results in August.”
Ms Ward said while it’s great the decision has been overturned, it should never have happened.
