Prof. Thattil heads govt. ‘Z-score’ committee

July 5, 2012, 7:09 am 

By Saman Indrajith, the island

Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayaka told Parliament yesterday that a three-member expert committee headed by Prof. R. O. Thattil, of the University of Peradeniya, had been appointed to advise the University Grants Commission (UGC) on how to implement the Supreme Court directive on the calculation of the Z score. The minister said Vice Chancellor of the Peradeniya University, Prof A. Epasinghe was another member of the committee. The third member wasn’t named.

 "The UGC is working expeditiously to implement the Court’s directive and I can assure you that university admission will begin without delay once this matter is sorted out," the Minister said in response to a statement made by Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The Supreme Court last week ordered that the Z-score be calculated separately for students who sat the GCE (A/L) examination under the new and old syllabi in 2011.

The Opposition Leader in his statement welcomed the Supreme Court ruling.

The ruling given by the Supreme Court for rectifying injustices caused to the children owing to separate Z score calculations for the two syllabi should be appreciated. It had opened an opportunity to rectify the injustices caused by the government, Ministers and those who are responsible," Wickremesinghe said, requesting the government to take immediate action to adopt measures to prevent injustice being caused to any students who had been selected to the university as a result of the erroneous Z-Score.