Z-Score case: Examinations Chief, MoE, AG defend ‘pooling’ method

May 30, 2012, 12:00 pm

By Chitra Weerarathne, the island

The Commissioner General of Examinations, the Minister of Education and the Attorney General, in their written submissions, filed in the Supreme Court recently, said that there was no basis in law to treat the students who sat the GCE Advanced Level Examination under the old and new syllabi separately in calculating the Z-score.

The GCE (A/L) examination had been conducted in August 2011 in such a manner as to would give equal opportunities to students, who had sat the examination under the old and new syllabi, the aforesaid respondents said in response to a fundamental rights violation application filed by a group of students.

Meanwhile, the University Grants Commission which has been made a respondent said that the pooling method used to calculate the Z-Score was appropriate and that should be adopted in admitting students to the universities.

Prof. R. O. Thattil of the Peradeniya University has said that the two syllabi should be dealt with separately in calculating the Z-Score.

The petitioner students have moved the Supreme Court against the pooling method requesting the Court to direct the respondents to calculate the Z-Scores separately for the two syllabi.