Vegetarian teen disqualified from GCSE exam over Islamophobia for criticising halal meat The exam board admitted it ‘did not reach the right conclusion’

A vegetarian GCSE student was disqualified from a Religious Studies exam after her comments about halal meat were mistaken by examiners as being Islamophobic.

16-year-old Abigail Ward was accused of making “obscene racial comments … throughout the exam paper” by exam board OCR, which accused her of a “malpractice offence”, according to The Telegraph.

But it emerged that the comments in the June exam made by the student from Gildredge House school in Eastbourne, East Sussex, stemmed from her being a “very strict” vegetarian.

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The disqualification was overturned after an appeal by her school explained that the remark that meat from halal butchers is “absolutely disgusting” came from a vegetarian standpoint, rather a racial or religious one.

The exam board also accepted that no other comments in the paper could have been deemed racist, adding that its initial statement about the “frequency and severity of the comments was inaccurate”.

‘Over-zealous’

OCR apologised for the stress the disqualification had caused and wished Abigail luck with her GCSE results.

It added that it takes “all incidences of suspected offensive material against a religious group in exams very seriously” but admitted in this case, initially it “did not reach the right conclusion”.

Abigail’s Mum, Layla Ward, told The Telegraph she was pleased the disqualification was overturned, but “it should never have happened”.

The 36-year-old nurse said she thinks the disqualification was a result of an examiner being “over-zealous” and “over-righteous”.

‘Gobsmacked’

She was surprised that her daughter, who she described as an “animal lover”, was penalised, and said the school’s headmaster was equally “shocked” when they were informed about what had happened.



“We called her [Abigail] downstairs and said, ‘What is this about?’

“She was just as gobsmacked as we were. She’s never had a detention, she’s so good at school,” Mrs Ward said.

“It made me angry when asked a question in the exam, you can’t even express your feelings,” she added.