Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Change of results percentage after re-correction insignificant: Minister
The percentage of change of results after re-correction of answer scripts of the G.C.E. Advanced Level Examination conducted in 2010 had been as low as 1.5 per cent in 2010, a slight increase from 1.1 per cent reported the previous year, Minister Bandula Gunawardane said yesterday.In 2010, 62,268 candidates applied for re-correction, and only 989 of them had their results changed after the process. According to the Minister, 89,503 candidates applied for re-correction in 2009, and 1,026 of them got changed results later.
However, the results change accounted for seven per cent of candidates after re-correction of their answer scripts in 2008, 7.1 per cent in 2007, 2.5 per cent in 2006 and 4.0 per cent in 2005.
The Minister said the number of candidates who applied this time could be finalised only after the deadline on January 17.
“The number of candidates who applied for re-correction had varied from 34,000 to 90,000 during the last five years. We do not know how many will apply this time,” Mr. Gunawardane said.
However, it is anticipated by the public that the number can be higher this time given the discrepancies in the calculation of the Z-score rankings of candidates who sat the examination in August 2011. (Kelum Bandara)
Private universities to be closely monitored: Ministry
Four regulatory and monitoring bodies will be established under the proposed Quality Assurance, Accreditation and Qualification Framework Act to monitor and regulate private degree-awarding institutions, private universities and academies, a senior higher education ministry official said yesterday.Higher Education Ministry Secretary Sunil Navaratne said these monitoring bodies would oversee degree programmes, time allocated for degree and diploma programmes, the time allocated to lectures, the qualifications of the academic staff, the recruiting policies and minimum qualifications required for degree and diploma programmes.
They will also monitor and supervise, register and issue occasional guidelines to all non-government higher education institutes including the Chartered Institute of Management (CIM), Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) SLIT, SLIM, ACBT and other non-state universities in addition to hundreds of diploma and degree awarding institutions that have been affiliated to foreign and local universities.
“Almost all these private higher educational institutes have been registered under the Department of Registration of Companies or under the BOI or both as private establishments. But there is no proper monitoring system on the degree and diploma programmes conducted by these institutions and no one can vouch for the quality of the degrees and diplomas offered by them.
Therefore, it is the need of the hour to have a proper monitoring system to ensure they maintain an accept minimum quality in their educational programmes that will be on par with international standards,” Dr. Navaratne said and added that there would be a continuous process of monitoring these private higher educational institutions which would be required to register annually or bi-annually under the Higher Education Council.
He said some 39 degree awarding institutions affiliated to local and foreign universities were in operation in the country and there were instances where some institutions offer diplomas in six months, degrees in one year and post graduate degrees in two years which reflects badly on the country as well as its education system.
"The registration will be withdrawn and degree programmes banned if an institute is found guilty of violating the provisions of the Act. All institutions will be charged an annual fee for registration,” Dr. Navaratne said. (Sandun A. Jayasekera)
Rajarata Medical Faculty closed
January 9, 2012, 10:21 pm , The Island.by Dasun Edirisinghe
The Faculty of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences, of the Rajarata University, was closed indefinitely yesterday morning as first year undergraduates, who were performing a satyagraha against the suspension of seven senior students, refused to vacate in defiance of a court order.
Vice Chancellor of the University Prof. K. A. Nandasena told The Island that they had asked students to vacate on Saturday, but same first year students had remained within the university premises until last morning.
"We had to close the faculty to prevent further troubles," he said adding university would decide when the faculty would be reopened.
The university administration had to suspend seven senior students of the faculty who were engaged in severe ragging, but the first year students demanded that the suspension order, be withdrawn.
The senior academic said that they had decided to suspend first year students to contain unrest.
Meanwhile, the Students Alliance of the Rajarata Medical Faculty held a media briefing in Colombo along with the JVP dissidents-backed Medical Faculty Students Action Committee yesterday.
Addressing the media, convener of the alliance Chaminda Pushpakumara said that the university administration was continuously engaged in suppressing students who protested against academic and welfare shortcomings.
There was no professorial unit for final year students to do their clinical practices so far, he said adding that university administration had failed to provide the building on the promised date.
"When we protest against these problems, the university administration suspends our leaders claiming they were involved in ragging," Pushpakumara said.
The irate student said that they will not give up the protests until their demands were met.
Police identify 25 undergraduates responsible for student unrest
January 9, 2012, 10:47 pmby Cyril Wimalasurendre, The Island.
Kandy – Police investigating the recent student unrest at the Peradeniya University, have identified twenty five undergraduates as those responsible for violent incidents.
Following a report filed in the Magistrate’s Court of Kandy by the police, Acting Chief Magistrate Ms. Jayaki de Alwis directed that notice be issued on the 25 undergraduates to appear in Court on January 26.
Police have conducted investigations into a number incidents within the premises of the University of Peradeniya, including an abortive marathon walk from Peradeniya to Colombo along the Kandy-Colombo road, several incidents of ragging, causing injuries to students, demonstrations etc.
PGIM warns: Either pay fees or forget exam
January 9, 2012, 10:41 pm , The Island.By Don Asoka Wijewardena
Senior Assistant Registrar of Examinations of the Post-Graduate Institute of Medicine (PGIM) Saman Uyangoda said yesterday that the decision to increase the examination fee to Rs. 190.000 and Rs. 140.000 for doctors sitting the repeat MD part 1 and part 2 oncology exam had been taken collectively by the PGIM Board of Management, because each foreign examiner would have to be paid Rs. 500,000 to cover their expenses.
The PGIM said it would inform all applicants that if they failed to pay the prescribed fees, there would not be an examination.
Doctors who needed to sit repeat examinations in oncology, opthalmology and psychiatry were required to pay the prescribed fees for foreign examiners’, who would arrive from Australia and the United Kingdom, Uyangoda said.
Uyangoda said that though the PGIM was a government institution under the Ministry of Higher Education, the doctors wanted to dit repeat MD part 1 and MD part 2 tests would have to pay Rs. 190,000 and Rs, 140,000 respectively to cover the expenses of foreign examiners’ during their stay in Sri Lanka.
Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) Assistant Secretary Dr. Sankalpa Marasinghe said that the GMOA had failed to get an appointment to meet Health Ministry Secretary Dr. Ravindra Ruberu yesterday. The GMOA would meet him today to discuss the PGIM issue.
The GMOA was hopeful that some sort of concessionary fee could be arranged for repeat examinations.
Dr Marasinghe said the PGIM belongs to the Higher Education Ministry. For want of cordial relations between Health Ministry and Higher Education Ministry many a problem has arisen. But the GMOA expects a positive response from Dr. Ruberu who will have to request the Higher Education Ministry (UGC) to reduce the fee."
UGC to relocate Jaffna’s Agriculture, Engineering faculties to Kilinochchi
January 9, 2012, 10:23 pm , The Island.by Dasun Edirisinghe
The University Grants Commission plans to relocate the Jaffna University’s Agriculture faculty and the new Engineering faculty to Kilinochchi in order to enhance postwar education opportunities in the Northern Province.
UGC Chairman Prof. Gamini Samaranayake told The Island that a special team from the UGC and Higher Education Ministry would discuss the issues with Jaffna University’s Vice Chancellor, Director of the University’s Vavuniya Campus, lecturers and students during a four-day visit to the peninsula yesterday.
"We would discuss academic and welfare problems too while searching for new opportunities to expand higher education in the war affected area," he said.
Prof. Samaranayake said that at present the Agriculture Faculty of the university is located in the university’s main block in Jaffna where there was no engineering faculty.
The UGC enrolled students from the South to the Jaffna University from 2010 after the war ended in 2009, he said adding at present there are Sinhala students too receiving their education in the Management, Science and Medical faculties.
"There are around 150 Sinhala students in the Jaffna University at present," Prof. Samaranayake said adding it was unable to enroll students to the university’s Arts faculty as they were conducting academic lessons only in the Tamil medium so far.
This time too, he said, the UGC expects to admit more students to the Jaffna University as infrastructure facilities are being upgraded.
Prof. Samaranayake added that they would visit the Jaffna University’s Vavuniya campus too to discuss their problems.
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