GCSE exam paper withdrawn over ‘anti-Israel bias’
Board removes English paper after legal group warns students may be penalised for pro-Israel views
Pearson Edexcel has removed a GCSE English language paper from circulation after a pro-Israel legal group claimed it contained politically biased content relating to the 2014 Gaza war.
According to the Jewish Chronicle, the 2023 International GCSE exam included a reading task based on an extract from David Nott’s memoir War Doctor: Surgery on the Front Line, describing his experience treating patients in a Gaza hospital during the conflict.
The passage focused on a young girl wounded in a bombing and Nott’s decision to stay with her despite fears of an imminent strike on the hospital. One line described his action as “a pointless act of defiance against the warmongers”, a phrase UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) said could be interpreted as referring to Israel.
In a formal complaint to Pearson, UKLFI said the inclusion of such an extract in an unseen comprehension task could place “students who are supportive of Israel in an invidious position” when answering exam questions. They also warned that its continued availability online risked “similar detriment” for mock exam candidates.
In response, Pearson removed the exam paper, mark scheme and examiner report from its website, and said its anti-piracy team had been instructed to issue takedown notices to third-party platforms hosting the material.
In a letter to UKLFI, the board said the passage was “no longer considered appropriate” in light of the October 2023 Hamas attacks and the subsequent escalation of conflict in the region.
Pearson also confirmed it had introduced “additional safeguards” to strengthen internal processes for selecting unseen texts across English and other subjects, particularly where content may relate to war, trauma or politically sensitive issues.
In a public statement, the board said: “Following a review, we have removed a 2023 International GCSE English Language exam paper, mark scheme and examiner report from our website. We no longer consider the unseen text it contains to be appropriate in the context of a heightened conflict. The wellbeing of students using our assessment materials is our priority.”
The comprehension paper had asked students to analyse Nott’s account and compare it with a second extract – George Alagiah’s A Passage to Africa – as part of a non-fiction writing module.
Pearson Edexcel is one of the UK’s largest awarding bodies, with thousands of students sitting in GCSE and International GCSE exams each year. The removal of the paper follows growing scrutiny over how Middle East conflicts are depicted in British classrooms.
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