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| Tuesday, 3 August 2004 |
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The Ministry of Education has developed a system to continuously seek principals' views on school admissions. In addition to discussing issues concerning the ongoing 2005 admissions, new suggestions for a future policy on school admissions will also be sought, the Education Ministry said yesterday. These ideas will be passed on to the Savithri Gunasekera Committee, deliberating on the subject at the National Education Commission, the Ministry said. Principals of Royal College, D.S. Senanayake College, Anula Balika Vidyalaya, Richmond College, Galle and Pushpadana Balika Vidyalaya, Kandy are included in a committee together with the Director, National schools and three other senior officers of the Ministry. The committee will function at the Ministry of Education. This is part of the program the Ministry has launched to improve the existing system of school admissions with particular emphasis on removing corruption and malpractices. There is heavy competition for nearly 50 popular schools mainly in Colombo, Galle, Kandy and Kurunegala districts. According to the Education Ministry the highest competition is for the Colombo district schools, followed by several schools in the Kandy district including Mahamaya Girls schools and Dharmaraja College. President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga earlier appointed a special unit to receive complaints and other grievances concerning Grade One admissions to national schools. This unit functions under the direct supervision of the President and is managed jointly by the Presidential Secretariat and the Education Ministry. The President took this action in her capacity as the Education Minister, considering the endless flow of letters to the Presidential Secretariat by parents on the issue. There are allegations on numerous malpractices committed in the process to gain admission to popular schools. Many cases of discrimination to less affluent students have also been reported in the past. Parents were required to send their letters by ordinary mail or fax. Over 40 popular national schools last year submitted admission documents for new Grade 1 students on their temporary lists to the Education Ministry to be referred to the Criminal Investigation Department for verification. This action was taken in a bid to curb the booming racket in grade one admissions. It is alleged even some Grama Niladaris are involved in this fraud where parents find a nearby address, get their names inserted in the voters list and also get new birth certificates for the child to facilitate their child's admission to a popular school. Meanwhile, there was nearly a 30,000 drop in the number of Grade one admission applications received for 2004 against the previous year. |
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