Callous Response By Education Officials

By Raisa Wickrematunge, The Sunday Leader

Students demonstrating

The education sector in Sri Lanka is in a state of turmoil. From the confusion and controversy of the Advanced Level results to petrol bombs in the Sri Jayawardenapura University and student unrest, incidents keep making the news.
Yet it must be noted that this sector has not been passed over in terms of Government supervision. There are five Ministers who are officially tasked with various areas. There is the Minister of Education, Bandula Gunawardena, the Deputy Minister of Education, Wijith Wijithamuni Zoysa, the Minister of Higher Education, S. B. Dissanayake, the Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Nandimithra Ekanayake, and the Education Ministry Monitoring MP, Mohanlal Grero.
Between them, these five people hold the reins of power in the sector. Yet even with the recent addition of Monitoring MP Grero, the bungling continues, and each Ministry is keen to pass the responsibility to someone else. So, how exactly do these institutes fit together, and what does each Minister do?
Missing In Action
Secretary to the Higher Education Ministry, Dr. Sunil Nawaratne, said that S. B. Dissanayake’s purview extended to “all higher education institutions, including advanced technological institutions”. Deputy Minister Ekanayake provided assistance in these areas, Nawaratne said. S. B. Dissanayake is currently overseas, Ministry sources said.
The Secretary to the Education Ministry, H. M. Gunasekara, seems to have a schedule busier than most Members of Parliament. He was unavailable for comment over the course of a week. Minister Bandula Gunawardena was similarly missing in action. The Monitoring MP Grero was also too busy to answer his phone.
The Advanced Level Fiasco
It is not hard to guess why most of the Ministers are conveniently absent – the recently “released” Advanced Level results. Advanced Level students received a most unwelcome Christmas present when they realised that the ranking system was full of errors. To further confound things, some students received results in an entirely different stream, with Science students receiving Arts results and so on. There was such an uproar that the Department of Examinations hastily decided to take another look at the results, though it was announced that there would be no change. The retirement of Commissioner General of Examinations Anura Edirisinghe was coincidentally announced shortly after, as he had served his full term in the post. The President then appointed a committee to look at the results and determine what went so badly wrong. Already, the re-examination of the results has been delayed, with the deadline extended to January 17, the Examinations Commissioner W. Pushpakumara said on Friday (6).
A mistake in the ‘Z score’ has been pinpointed by many as the reason for most of the errors – but what exactly is the Z score? Nawaratne explained that it was a system which standardised scores so that those who sat for easier exams did not get an unfair advantage compared to those who decided to sit for more difficult papers.
He also revealed that the professors who developed the Z score were appointed by the University Grants Commission, which in fact came under the purview of the Higher Education Ministry. Five professors were appointed for the task.
Nawaratne was quick to say that the idea of the committee, however, came from the Education Ministry. Examinations Commissioner Pushpakumara refused to comment on the cause behind the mix up until the committee released its report.
Yet this varied from Deputy Minister Ekanayake’s statement. Ekanayake said that the mistakes could be the result of a computer error, but also implied that the Examination Commissioner’s department was at fault. “The Examination Department is an independent body. This falls under their purview. There could have been a miscalculation there,” Ekanayake said.
However, it is important to note that while the Advanced Level results have been dominating the newspapers, they have not been the only incidents of unrest in the sector.
Seven students were suspended for violence at the Rajarata University, while at Peradeniya, the students were worried about a gang which had arrived on the University premises and burned some banners placed there.
Meanwhile, in the early hours of Thursday (5) a petrol bomb exploded at Sri Jayawardenapura University, reportedly damaging a memorial statue on the campus grounds. The statue was erected in memory of those who were killed during the incidents of unrest in 1971, 1988 and 1989. The Vice Chancellor, N. L. A. Karunaratne, claimed to the press that the blast was a deliberate attempt to create chaos.
On the same day, students at the university staged a protest walk to Temple Trees, demanding the removal of Karunaratne. The Inter University Students Federation (IUSF) had in the meantime claimed that Karunaratne had contracted security detail within the university, thus affecting the students. As a result, traffic in the area was heavily congested for hours.
These are the incidents reported in the past week; and whoever is at fault, it is clear that students remain dissatisfied with the state of the education sector. That trend looks set to continue. It seems that the Advanced Level students will have to wait some time before getting any answers.