Sixteen GCE Advanced Level Students and the Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU) yesterday filed fundamental rights violation petitions in the Supreme Court challenging the formula applied on the 2011 GCE Advanced Level Examination to calculate the Z-score.The petitioners said the erroneous and unjustifiable application of the formula had caused a gross distortion of the examination results.
Examinations Commissioner General W.M.N.J. Pushpakumara, Education Minister Bandula Gunawardene, Peradeniya University R.O. Thattiland and the Attorney General were cited as respondents.
The petitioners alleged that their fundamental rights to equality and equal protection of the law had been violated and sought court to declare null and void the August 2011 GCE Advanced Level results and the Z-scores.
They are asking the court to direct that the Z-Scores of the candidates be calculated according to the accepted statistical norms and principles, and to calculate the Z-score of a subject on the premise that the new syllabus and the old syllabus are separate from each other.
They are also asking the court to direct the respondents to reissue the results to all the candidates after correcting the errors as regards the Z-Score and other shortcomings.
The petitioners are seeking the court to make an appropriate interim order suspending any further step with regard to university admission, until the final determination of this application.
They are asking court to make an order calling for all the documentation, records and reports pertaining to the calculation of the Z-score contained in the official results of the GCE Advanced Level Examination released on December 30 and to award compensation to the petitioners as determined by the court.
They said until 1999, the selection of students for admission to universities and other higher educational institutions were based on the aggregate marks obtained by the candidates at the GCE Advanced Level Examination.
During this period, every subject stream, namely Biological Science, Mathematics, Commerce and Arts contained four (4) subjects and therefore, a candidate had to sit for four (4) separate question papers.
However, with the introduction of new educational reforms, the number of subjects relevant to a subject stream of the GCE Advanced Level Examination was reduced to three (3) from year 2000. Accordingly, a candidate was required to sit for three (3) question papers thenceforth, in addition to a Common General Test which all the candidates were expected to get through. (S.S. Selvanayagam)
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