No unfairness caused to students in admission to academies

Reference the letter to the Editor of Dinamina on 18.06.2005 by a female student candidate seeking admission to teacher academies in 2003 titled 'Relief wanted with regard to the injustice caused in the admission of students to teacher academics'.

It is in accordance with the teacher education policy prevailing in the country and based on the project reports submitted by the planning division that the number of students admitted to the various courses is decided on in admitting students to National Education Academies, the Education Ministry said. Students were not recruited to Social Science, Sinhala courses due to the policy decision arrived at to give appointments to unemployed graduates. Accordingly, the number of students recruited to National Education Academies change from year to year on the national need. Primary students have been recruited to a limited number of academies on the national policy of specialisation academies according to courses.

The admission of students based on merit marks for the year 2005 is also a policy decision. The national level merit mark was: Music - 60, Dancing - 65, Art - 26 and the merit mark for the difficult districts varied from district to district. Examination results of Bhathkande, Gandharva were not considered for giving merit marks and competitions mentioned in the Gazette notification only were considered for that purpose.

Further, although the opportunity of applying was made available to students of the prescribed age limit who passed Advanced Level in or before the considering year in the past only students in the years 2001, 2002 who received their results on the Z Score could apply in the year 2004. It is the above procedure that is being followed in admitting students to universities too. Therefore, no injustice has been caused to any student by the Gazette Notification of 03.06.2005 to admit students for year 2005.