‘Can I go against the Z score scaling technique which I advocated?’, asks Prof. Thattil

January 21, 2012, 7:33 pm , Sunday Island

On a request by UNP parliamentarian Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena, Professor R. O. Thattil has written to him (the MP) clarifying a statement made by Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake to justify why he (the Professor) was not consulted in formulating the Z score.

"One reason given by him was that I appeared in a court case a few years back and stated that the Z score was incorrect. This is a complete distortion of facts. What really happened was that I submitted a document in a court case with respect to rounding off errors. In that document, I stated that the Z scores received for each subject, should not be rounded off at the second decimal place before averaging the Z scores of the different subjects of a given student", Prof. Thattil noted.

He said the rounding off error can go up to 0.005 (i.e. a change in the 3rd decimal place) in the final Z score. This value is decisive at the cut off where entry to different streams are made. For example, a Z score 1.251 will be rounded to 1.25 while a score of 1.255 in rounded to 1.26. Why round off intermediate values, when the computer can keep a large number of decimal places.

"How can I go against the Z score scaling technique which I advocated more than a decade ago? I am sure the committee appointed by the President must have seen this document but never mentioned it in their report", he said.

"The second allegation is on malpractices. When I was the Director of the Post Graduate Institute of Agriculture (PGIA) from 2002 - 2006 there was a need to put up a classroom complex (4 storey), since the space was not enough to cater to the increased intake. While the building was being put up, there was an audit query regarding why the company that quoted a higher figure was chosen as the Constructor. I answered the query explaining the reasons. The Tender Board and the Board of Management has earlier approved this", the Professor explained.

"There was also no inquiry committee appointed by the UGC to look into the allegations made. However, the UGC did not reappoint me for another term. This is used as the reason why I am speaking out against the incorrect method used by the UGC appointed committee in calculating the Z score. I am a professional who is speaking out against something that is wrong. I am not politically motivated at all, although some persons have branded me as an anti-government activist and slinging mud at me", he noted.