Confidence in the Sri Lanka's examinations system lost, academics voice concern

Thu, Dec 29, 2011, 09:20 am SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
 
Dec 29, Colombo: University lecturers in Sri Lanka say confidence in the examinations system of the country has been lost following the controversy surrounding the highly competitive GCE Advanced Level results released by the Examinations Department.
President of the Federation of University Teachers' Association (FUTA), Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri has said the government cannot dismiss the issue of releasing wrong A/Level results as a minor issue.
He has observed that it was a grave problem for the students, who have received results that are in the mid-level range.
"It is a dangerous situation if the students begin to lose confidence in the examinations system," Dewasiri has noted.
Referring to the comment, made by Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayaka that the results were released hurriedly due to the President�s intervention, Dewasiri has said it proved the inefficiency and irresponsibility of state institutions.

TNA call for debate regarding A/L results

Dailymirror

Friday, 30 December 2011 10:34 The TNA today called for an immediate parliament debate regarding the current status of the Advance Level results. Speaking to the Daily Mirror TNA MP Suresh Premachandra said that the representative have to be appraised immediately about the current situation . “The government again showed its incompetence in not being able to give in proper results to the students of this country. This isn’t the first time syllabuses have been changed but we never encountered a problem such as this. It is the lives of the Children who are the future of this country that these people are playing with” he said. He went on to point out that the injustice is equal to students of all parts of the country and that immediate remedial measure should be taken.  (H.F)

Cartoon of the day, The Island.

Everyone's passing the ball regarding the A/L fiasco: Thalatha

Thursday, 29 December 2011 21:09, Dailymirror.

UNP Ratnapura District Parliamentarian Thalatha Athulokarala speaking to Daily Mirror online today said that the government is not taking responsibility in the recent debacle regarding the Advanced Level results.

"Who is responsible for this mess? No one knows because all those in power keep passing the buck on each other, it is the lives of the children these people are playing with. I have been a part of this system and we know what a lot of hard work goes into this exam, it is the one most defining moment in a child's life and this government made a mess of it," she said.

Athulokarala went on to point out that children had utmost faith in the system and that has eroded due to the negligence of the authorities."The children have throughout the years kept their fate in the hands of those in power to give them results that were fair, but today that faith has been lost, the confidence that a child, parent and the public at large have towards the government has eroded, it's one of the most pathetic instances of total government failure," she said.

The UNP reformist group MP went on to ask as to why over hundred thousand children should pay for the mistakes of a few. "Why should the children suffer? they are the future of our country and the actions of the few of those who can't do their job properly has made all of these children suffer," she said. (Hafeel Farisz)

Govt. should re-process A/L results: Movement

• 30 Dec 2011
• Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)
• BY YOHAN PERERA

The National Movement to Protect Free Education (NMPFE) yesterday called for the complete re-processing of GCE A/L results in order to do justice to the affected students.
NMPFE Convener Ven Dhamaba Amila Thera told a news conference yesterday that the education authorities should accept the responsibility humbly and see that the results are re-processed as errors had occurred when feeding the data into computers. He however said that no errors could have occurred during the marking of papers as they were done under the guidance of academics.

The Ven Thera said that the students that sat for the examinations and their parents had lost faith in the Department of Examination because of these unacceptable results. He also charged that there was a connection between this crisis and the government’s plan to set up private universities.
Coming up with several examples of confusing results put out by the Department the Thera said that a students whose Z score had been 0.9942 had been ranked first while another students whose Z score had been 1.1834 had been ranked 978.

KELANIYA UNIVERSITY STUDENTS STAGE SATYAGRAHA

• 30 Dec 2011
• Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)
• BY LAL S. KUMARA

We have only held a reception to welcome the new students over which the administration held a disciplinary enquiry

The Kelaniya University students Union staged a styagraha in front of the university yesterday morning against what they called the arbitrary suspension of studentship of 13 students of the University.

The conveyor of the Union, Janaka Bandara who joined the protest said the suspension of the 13 students is baseless and arbitrary. “We have only held a reception to welcome the new students over which the administration held a disciplinary enquiry. Later on, only some of the students were released from the inquiry. Besides, studentship was suspended of 2 students who protested over the hostel issue,” he said.
He said that if the university administration does not withdraw the suspension of the 13 students they would be compelled to engage in a severe protest with the assistance of all the students’ unions, non academic staff and the university teachers.

Suspend results and then probe: CTU

• 30 Dec 2011
• Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)

The Ceylon Teachers Union yesterday said that appointing a committee to inquire into the recently released A/L results, was meaningless without the suspension of results. Union Secretary Joseph Stalin in a statement said, “The people have experienced several situations where committees had been appointed in the past whenever a decisive issue surfaces in the country, and these are aimed at suppressing the issues and in other words a delaying tactic. In a situation, of this nature at an examination which decides the future of children, the irresponsible manner in which the authorities had discharged their primary duties is a grave concern and the appointment of such committees would not bring in any tangible results.”

He therefore insisted on suspending the results in its entirety and review them, before appointing the committee. This would dispel fears or suspicions the people have about examinations and results, he said.

Cancel A/L results, urges Sajith

• 30 Dec 2011
• Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)

UNP Deputy Leader Sajith Premadasa yesterday urged the education authorities to cancel the GCE advanced level examination results and subject all answer scripts to a process of re correction to ensure justice to the students who had been affected by the errors in results. Mr. Premadasa in a statement said this was essential so that the children who sat for the examination could plan their future effectively. The UNP Deputy Leader said education authorities including the Minister and the Commissioner General of Examinations should take the responsibility for this blunder.
“One cannot take this lightly as serious blunders have taken place when preparing results,” he said. He cited an example where a student from the science stream had been given grades for arts subjects.

He said everything including district rankings and Z score had been messed up this year putting the children in a difficulty. Mr. Premadasa charged that this came as a result of holding the GCE A level examination to suit a political agenda.
He also took the education authorities to task for extending the term of the present Commissioner of Examinations recently though his term ended two months ago.

NO REVISION OF A/L RESULTS

• 30 Dec 2011
• Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)
• BY SANDUN A. JAYASEKERA

Committee to look into the rankings blunder

The Education Ministry said yesterday it would not review the controversial GCE A/L results despite requests and protests from various quarters.
Examinations Chief Anura Edirisinghe displaying a document at yesterday’s news conference in the presence of Ministers S.B. Dissanayake and Bandula Gunawardena. Pic by Pradeep Pathirana. Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena said President Mahinda Rajapaksa was expected to appoint a fivemember committee comprising a Supreme Court Judge, three Vice Chancellors and the Attorney General to look into the blunder by the Examinations Department when preparing the district rankings. The minister said the Z-score and the Island rankings were correct but admitted there was a mix-up in the district rankings.
He said none of the students had been affected due to this mistake as it had now been rectified.
The minister said there was no necessity to review or reissue the results as the web showed the correct results with the Z score and island and district rankings. The committee will recommend remedial measures to prevent a repetition of a similar mess-up, identify those responsible and al to recommend amendments to the Education Act. The minister said under no circumstances would he submit his resignation as what happened was a matter of collective responsibility and moreover such a tradition of resignation was non-existent in Sri Lanka’s political environment.
At a media conference held at the Examinations Department auditorium the minister was adamant in saying that the GCE A/L results released by the Examinations Department after revising the district rankings were correct.
“We are awaiting the observations and recommendations of this committee before taking any action against those responsible for the mess-up,” he said.

The minister said President Rajapaksa had spoken to him, Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayaka and education officials about the delay in releasing the 2011 GCE A/L results and urged them to speed up the process which eventually led to the technical blunder.
He said there was a conspiracy from several quarters mainly from a section of teachers to disrupt the 2011 GCE A/L examination and described it as an attempt to ruin the future of some 300,000 children.“it was a premeditated and a malicious act going on from June to disrupt the exam. At first, university lecturers said they would not mark A/L answer papers if their salary issue
was not resolved. Several teachers unions said they would take trade union action and would not participate in holding the exam if university teachers refused to mark answer papers. They wanted the payment for paper making increased though hundreds of teachers said they were prepared to mark answer scripts free-of-charge,” the minister said.
He said the Z score had been studied in-depth by a team of eminent professionals including university professors and ratified by the Supreme Court as the most appropriate method to select students to universities.
He said education and higher education ministries had consulted the Attorney General prior to the release of results and any student was free to apply for re-correction if he or she had the slightest of doubt about the validity of the results.

Presidential Comm. to probe GCE (A/L) results mess up

December 29, 2011, 10:02 pm , The Island.

By Dasun Edirisinghe

President Mahinda Rajapaksa would appoint a committee to probe the District ranking mess up of the GCE (A/L) examination results 2011, Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena said.

Addressing a packed media conference at the Examinations Department auditorium, Minister Gunawardena said that the committee would include three university Vice Chancellors and a retired judge.

The proposed committee would also make recommendations to amend the Examinations Act of 1968, he said.

"There are several things in the existing Act that need to be amended," Gunawardena said adding that it was to ensure consistency in rules and regulations, some of which now change with Ministers.

"For example, if some examination supervisor did something wrong the department could only sack her/him from exam duties according to the existing Act, but in future through amendments we hope to bring in some deterrent punishments as well," he said.

The Examinations Department released results after making ‘Z’–score by combining the old and new syllabuses according to the formula given by the experts committee including Prof. K. R. M. T. Karunaratne, Prof. Sarath Kulatunga, Prof. Sarath Peiris, Dr. Banneheka and Dr. Dilhari Atygalle, he said adding all were top statisticians of the country.

Assuring that GCE (A/L) results were 100% accurate and only the revised district ranks were issued a day after the release of the results, Gunawardena said that there was no need for anyone to resign as nothing serious had happened.

He said that the teacher trade unionists who were demanding rescrutiny of results were trying to sabotage exam duties and answer script evaluation, but it was unsuccessful.

"They threatened to boycott exam evaluation and duties from July," Gunawardena said adding that they were now trying to create a problem claiming that results were wrong.

He said that the ministry would not dance to their tune and the results would be not re–scrutinized.

However, students could apply for re-correction as usual as in other years, he said.

According to Gunawardena, last year too, 73,000 students applied for re–scrutiny of results.

Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake, Deputy Minister of Education Vijithamuni Zoysa, Higher Education Secretary Dr. Sunil Jayantha Navaratne, Education Secretary H. M. Gunasekera, Commissioner General of Examinations Anura Edirisinghe and other ministry officials were present.

Summon parliament urgently to debate
GCE A/L Exam results fiasco - UNP

* President should take the blame for giving unwarranted directions – Ravi K

December 29, 2011, 10:05 pm , The Island.

by Zacki Jabbar

The UNP, while calling for parliament to be summoned urgently from its recess, to discuss the GCE Advanced Level Examination results fiasco, yesterday blamed President Mahinda Rajapaksa, since it was he who had directed the Education Ministry to expedite the release of the results.

Ravi Karunanayake MP, told The Island that as reported by the State media, Rajapaksa on realizing that it would take some time to finalise the ‘Z’-Scores had summoned the Education Minister and other officials and directed them to publish the results soon, despite the practical difficulties involved.

The Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake has publicly admitted that the mix up in the district rankings had occurred due to the unwarranted pressure applied by people with "top connections" attempting to beat the deadline to get their children admitted to foreign universities, in case they did not obtain the required gradings locally, he said.

Akila Viraj Kariayawasam, MP, yesterday wrote to Prime Minister D. M. Jayaratne requesting him to ask the Speaker to re-summon parliament on January 14 ahead of the scheduled date of January 17, to debate the mix up in the A/L district gradings, which had led to frustration among many students.

Though technological issues have been blamed for the errors it was clear that the urgency with which the results were released had led to the mess, he said adding that in view of the contradictory views being expressed on a matter of utmost national importance, it was imperative that the highest legislative body in the country addressed the issue so that the mistakes could be rectified and repetitions avoided.

Undergraduates in sit-in-protest...

December 29, 2011, 10:22 pm , The Island.


Undergraduates in sit-in-protest opposite the Kelaniya University against the suspension of 13 of their colleagues over their alleged involvement in ragging freshers. They accused the University administration of targeting those campaigning for their rights.

Pic Dhammika Salwathura