---
title: "Exam board will no longer permit redaction of questions at religious schools"
date: "2014-03-31T14:11:16+01:00"
modified: "2014-03-31T14:11:16+01:00"
url: "https://newhumanist.org.uk/2014/03/31/exam-board-will-no-longer-permit-redaction-of-questions-at-religious-schools/"
post_id: 6174
categories: ["Uncategorised"]
---

# Exam board will no longer permit redaction of questions at religious schools

The OCR examination board [has announced](http://www.ocr.org.uk/news/view/ocr-policy-on-redaction-of-questions-in-exam-papers/) that it will not longer permit schools to edit or redact questions appearing on its papers.

The announcement follows investigations by the National Secular Society and the British Humanist Association [which revealed](/articles/4595/exam-board-condones-religious-schools-redaction-of-evolution-questions) that Yesodey Hatorah Jewish Voluntary Aided girls’ secondary school in north London had redacted sections of GCSE science papers dealing with evolution. A [further investigation](https://humanism.org.uk/2014/03/28/yesodey-hatorah-says-censoring-exam-questions-successfully-place-within-charedi-schools-throughout-england-many-years/) by the BHA last week indicated that such censorship may have been carried out in other Charedi schools in Britain.

In a press release issued today, OCR states that the board has “now been able to consider our position and have concluded that as a matter of policy schools should not be permitted to tamper with question papers prior to a student sitting an exam”.

The BHA’s faith schools Richy Thompson has [welcomed the announcement](https://humanism.org.uk/2014/03/31/bha-welcomes-leading-exam-board-ocrs-u-turn-policy-opposition-blacking-exam-questions/), saying that the “change of policy represents a victory of common sense over ignorance”.

Stephen Evans, campaigns manager at the NSS, [said that](http://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2014/03/regulator-and-exam-board-at-centre-of-censorship-row-change-policy-to-ban-redactions-at-faith-schools) the decision represents a “significant victory for the rights of children and young people to not have their education impeded by religious organisations seeking to pursue their own agenda of inculcation or indoctrination”.