Grade I Admission imbroglio ends

Wasantha Ramanayake

COLOMBO: Putting an end to the controversial school admission policy issue the Supreme Court yesterday ordered the Secretary to the Ministry of Education to publish the final draft Policy Framework for the school admission for the year 2008 on Friday.

The court stressing the importance of giving marks to the suitability of the children based on the observations of their activities that was left out by the Cabinet re-incorporated it in the final draft.

The Court directed the Education Secretary to present the final draft to the Cabinet meeting which was scheduled for yesterday evening prior to the publishing it on Friday.

The draft policy framework was referred to the court yesterday by the Attorney General (AG) in order to consider whether or not to incorporate certain amendments suggested by the Cabinet in the final draft.

The Bench comprised Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva PC and Justices Shirani Thilakawardane and Andrew Somawansa.

The court noted that every child whose father/mother serving in the Armed Forces and/or in the Police will be entitled to 10 marks. This will be automatically added upon the certification of the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence.

The Court also noted that the prevailing quota system of allocating marks for security personnel had created inequalities which was violative of the rights of the children.

The court further noted that the children of the handicapped, missing or dead security personnel are also entitled to ten marks.

The court included the Cabinet suggestion to allocate five marks for the public servants who were living in the feeder area i.e., the administrative district but working elsewhere outside the limit.

The Court was of the view that it was desirable to have a Deputy Chairman for school committees to function without undue delays in the absence of the chairman. It noted that he/she should be one of the nominees representing the past pupils’ association.

The Chief Justice appreciated the co-operation of the all the counsel of the petitioners, the Secretary to the Ministry of Education and the Deputy Solicitor General (DSG).

Several rights pleas were filed in the Supreme Court challenging the School Admission Circular published by the Secretary to the Ministry of Education for the year 2008.

They argued among the other matters that the new circular failed to provide provisions to maintain religious of the Vested Schools at the time of the vesting and would deny the equal opportunity to the Buddhists to be admitted to the National Schools in the Colombo Municipal area.

The petitioners also contended that the new circular limiting the feeder area to the Local Government area is irrational and that it would eliminate children of the past pupils.

President’s Counsel Manohara de Silva with Bandara Thalagune, Counsel Sanjeewa Jayawardane and Dusit Johnthasan appeared for the petitioners.

DSG Sanjaya Rajaratnam appeared for the Secretary to the Ministry of Education.