(RNS) A school exam's attempt to replace the dating system term B.C. ("Before Christ") with B.C.E. ("Before Common Era") has created a stir among government officials in the Australian state of New South Wales.

"This is political correctness gone mad," said Jillian Skinner, shadow education minister in the New South Wales parliament, according to Australian news sources.

Skinner said March 2 she had received complaints from parents of some of the 150,000 seventh-grade students who took the English Language and Literacy Assessment on March 2.

The exam featured a question about Nile River flooding in Ancient Egypt, marking the event as occurring in 590 B.C.E. A footnote to the question explained the term means "Before Common Era," an alternative to "Before Christ."