University admissions 2012/13

July 30, 2012, 7:39 pm 

In 2011, our son sat for his A/L’s for the second time in the Maths stream and passed with 3 As. However, with the latest release of the rankings, his district rank had gone down by over 100 positions. It seems that this is the plight for all the students who sat GCE A/L from the old syllabus. Their ranks have reduced drastically. This has also meant that even though previously they thought they could enter university, now they have realized they may not be able to. It is a mental agony for these innocent students. The examinations department has requested all students who wish to sit for A/L’s exam this August to apply immediately. However, as anyone can understand, A/L is not an exam for which one can prepare in a mere 2 weeks time! It’ll require at least six months to prepare for the exam adequately. The students who followed the old syllabus sat the A/L’s either for the second or the third time. Hence, for some of them, it is the last chance they have to enter university.

This is not the first time that local GCE A/L exam was held for two syllabuses. In the past, syllabuses have been changed many times and yet students did not experience any difficulties when entering the university. The whole process was handled smoothly. That being the case, the UGC should be able to find out how the admissions were handled at that time so that the same method can be followed.

In order to ensure that the students are not penalized, we suggest that a quota system be introduced to admit "qualified" students from both categories. The quota allocated to each batch can be based on the ratio between the number of students who passed the exam from the two syllabuses. Or, the quota could be determined by analyzing admissions in previous years to identify the percentages of students admitted from each sitting (first timers and repeaters) in the past few years. There should be two cut off marks; one for the students of the new syllabus and another for the students of the old syllabus. The district and island ranks should also be announced separately.

Else, we suggest that the intake for this year should be increased, if possible, and the increase in the intake could be used to admit students from the old syllabus. The students who sat from the old syllabus did the examination for either the 2nd or the 3rd time. Therefore for the ones who did the exam for the third time, they do not have any other chance to get selected to a university. Therefore it is clear that the ones who are most affected by this situation are the ones who sat the exam under the old syllabus.

We hope that this matter will be handled in a way that is beneficial to all the students who sat for the 2011 A/L exam.

Worried Parent

University admissions 2012/13

July 30, 2012, 7:39 pm 

In 2011, our son sat for his A/L’s for the second time in the Maths stream and passed with 3 As. However, with the latest release of the rankings, his district rank had gone down by over 100 positions. It seems that this is the plight for all the students who sat GCE A/L from the old syllabus. Their ranks have reduced drastically. This has also meant that even though previously they thought they could enter university, now they have realized they may not be able to. It is a mental agony for these innocent students. The examinations department has requested all students who wish to sit for A/L’s exam this August to apply immediately. However, as anyone can understand, A/L is not an exam for which one can prepare in a mere 2 weeks time! It’ll require at least six months to prepare for the exam adequately. The students who followed the old syllabus sat the A/L’s either for the second or the third time. Hence, for some of them, it is the last chance they have to enter university.

This is not the first time that local GCE A/L exam was held for two syllabuses. In the past, syllabuses have been changed many times and yet students did not experience any difficulties when entering the university. The whole process was handled smoothly. That being the case, the UGC should be able to find out how the admissions were handled at that time so that the same method can be followed.

In order to ensure that the students are not penalized, we suggest that a quota system be introduced to admit "qualified" students from both categories. The quota allocated to each batch can be based on the ratio between the number of students who passed the exam from the two syllabuses. Or, the quota could be determined by analyzing admissions in previous years to identify the percentages of students admitted from each sitting (first timers and repeaters) in the past few years. There should be two cut off marks; one for the students of the new syllabus and another for the students of the old syllabus. The district and island ranks should also be announced separately.

Else, we suggest that the intake for this year should be increased, if possible, and the increase in the intake could be used to admit students from the old syllabus. The students who sat from the old syllabus did the examination for either the 2nd or the 3rd time. Therefore for the ones who did the exam for the third time, they do not have any other chance to get selected to a university. Therefore it is clear that the ones who are most affected by this situation are the ones who sat the exam under the old syllabus.

We hope that this matter will be handled in a way that is beneficial to all the students who sat for the 2011 A/L exam.

Worried Parent

President for win-win situation, SB unwilling to budge

University crisis:

July 30, 2012, 9:50 pm , the island

President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday told newspaper editors at Temple Trees that what he envisaged as a solution to the on-going university strike was a win-win situation. He said the strikers had to appreciate the difficulties of the government and be realistic. Insisting that the university teachers were better paid than even the judges of the apex court in the country, he said there was no way their demand for more and more pay hikes could be met as that would prompt other professionals to follow suit.

When it was pointed out that what the university teachers had got were not salary increases as such but allowances, President Rajapaksa said that the fact remained that their income had increased substantially in absolute terms and that fact had to be appreciated.

While the meeting was on President Rajapaksa telephoned Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake, who was at his Ministry and asked him to make a beeline there to field questions from the media.

Minister Dissanayake insisted that university teachers had been given substantial pay hikes and the government had even chosen to turn a blind eye to some of their practices such as availing themselves sabbatical leave to work at other local universities instead of going overseas. He said it was wrong for anyone to draw two salaries from the government.

In other countries universities conducted fee levying courses and in Sri Lanka, too, universities should adopt that method to generate income, Minister Dissanayake said. The Federation of University Teachers (FUTA) wanted the government to allocate 6 per cent of the GDP for education, but the country was already spending a similar amount on education, if expenditure borne by various institutions, was taken into account, he argued. He said that besides the Education and Higher Education Ministries other ministries such as Fisheries conducted educational programme.

Minister Dissanayake said though the FUTA was on strike, 30 per cent of university teachers worked and some universities had not joined the strike at all. In response to a recent appeal he made to the striking dons, about 10 per cent of them had reported back to work, he claimed.

President Rajapaksa said the FUTA should have refrained from resorting to trade union action after its meeting with his Secretary Lalith Weeratunga, who had undertaken to explore the ways and means of settling the dispute.

Asked what action the government intended to take to deal with the FUTA strike, Minister Dissanayake said it would be made known at an appropriate time.

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Z-score dispute:

Govt. ascertaining data to evolve a solution - President

The government would see to it that no injustice would be caused to any student owing to the Z-score dispute, president Mahinda Rajapaksa told newspaper editors yesterday at Temple Trees. He said he had called for a report from the Ministry of Higher Education on the issue and it was expected shortly.

President Rajapaksa said that before initiating action to solve students’ problems due to the Z-score issue, he needed to ascertain accurate information about the situation from relevant authorities including the UGC and Vice Chancellors of universities.

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Opposition scared of elections — MR

‘I’ve shut the door on UNP defectors’

When the SLFP was in the Opposition, it had always demanded elections, but today the UNP was scared of polls, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said yesterday. "A political party that shies away from taking part in electoral contests should be ashamed of itself."

Asked whether there was any truth in rumours that UNP MP Dayasiri Jayasekera was trying to cross over to the government, President Rajapaksa said his government had a door which opened both ways and anyone was free to either enter or leave. Subsequently, he said some Opposition MPs had expressed their desire to cross over but he had not encouraged them to do so.

The President, however, refused to either deny or confirm the reports that MP Jayasekera was planning to cross over.