Teachers blast Z-score review decision

May 14, 2012, 10:35 pm , the island

by Dasun Edirisinghe

 The JVP–led Ceylon Teachers’ Service Union (CTSU) yesterday blasted the Higher Education Ministry’s decision to review the ‘Z–score’ system currently used to admit students to universities.

CTSU General Secretary Mahinda Jayasinghe told The Island that Higher Education minister S. B. Disanayake’s statement that an independent expert panel would be appointed under the President’s supervision to review the current university entrance system, the ‘Z –score’, was a farce.

Minister Dissanayake has decided to appoint a committee to review the ‘Z-score’ system on President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s instructions and to sort out problems related to it once and for all, Jayasinghe said adding that the government appointed five-member experts panel to look into the matters related to messed up GCE (A/L) results 2011 had submitted their report, but the students who sat the examination have not been informed about their position so far.

He said that there was a court case filed by a student against those results.

"In this context, it is a joke to appoint another committee to review the Z–score system," Jayasinghe said.

The trade unionist said that the students were affected by the error created when the merged ‘Z – scores’ of marks of two syllabuses were.

Jayasinghe said they had asked the government not waste more time by appointing fresh committees but cancel the result and reevaluate the papers.

When contacted by The Island, Higher Education Secretary Dr. Sunil Jayantha Navaratne said that there were several critics of the Z–score system’s credibility.

"That is why we decided to appoint an experts panel to review the system," he said.