Education Minister refuses to budge

June 27, 2012, 12:00 pm , the island



by Dasun Edirisinghe

Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena said yesterday that there was no need for him to resign as he did not commit any wrong.

He was responding to the JVP’s and teacher trade unions’ demand for him to resign over the ‘Z–score’ fiasco.

"I was the third respondent in the ‘Z–score’ case and the examinations chief was the first respondent," Gunawardena said adding that the Supreme Court cleared them without any punishment.

Gunawardena said that the Examination Department calculated the ‘Z–score’ of the GCE (A/L) 2011 results based on the method given by the experts committee appointed by the University Grants Commission.

He said that the examinations department was not responsible for the ‘Z–score’ fiasco.

According to the Supreme Court order, the ‘Z–score’ of the two syllabi should be cal culated separately, the minister said adding that so far the UGC had not told the examination department to carry out the re-calculation.

Gunawardena said that the examinations department holds three major examinations, grade V scholarship, GCE (O/L) and GCE (A/L), per year.

"Our duty is to hold exams and evaluate papers," he said adding that the UGC was the authority for admitting students to universities and that was why they provided guidelines to make the ‘Z–score’.

The examination department calculated the ‘Z–score’ earlier using the formula given by the UGC, but the Court asked it to do it separately for the two syllabi, the minister said.

Now, the department was awaiting the new formula given by the Supreme Court, Gunawardena said.