GCE A/L mess up ends up in Supreme Court

January 27, 2012, 9:28 pm , The Island.

By Chitra Weeraratne

A fundamental rights violation application was filed in the Supreme Court yesterday by 17 petitioners requesting the Court to declare null and void the results of 2011 GCE Advanced Level examination.

The petition said that the application of an erroneous and unjustifiable common formula to calculate the two Z scores of candidates who sat the examination under the new and old syllabuses had caused a gross distortion of the examination results.

The petitioners complained of arbitrary treatment by the Commissioner General of Examinations, the University Grants Commission, the Minister of Education and several other respondents.

The petition requested the Court to declare that the results so released on or around December 25, 2011 null and void.The petitioners further requested that the Z scores of the candidates be calculated according to the accepted statistical norms and principles with the new and syllabuses considered two distinct populations. The petitioners further requested the respondents to re-issue the results of all the candidates after the rectification of the errors.

Sanjeewa Kaluarachchi is the instructing attorney of this petition which is to be supported in Court shortly by Counsel J.C. Weliamunna. Among the petitioners are students and members of the Ceylon Teachers’ Union.