Appeals against A/L reassessment:

UGC offers one month

Uditha KUMARASINGHE

Education Minister Susil Premajayantha told Parliament yesterday that the University Grants Commission (UGC) has offered one month for candidates to appeal against any problems caused by reassessment of the results of the 2008 GCE Advanced Level Examination.

The Minister said the grades of only 1.28 percent of students have been changed as a result of this reassessment. "I can assure that the first reassessment of the 2008 GCE Advanced Level examination has been conducted in a very formal manner," he said.

The Minister made these remarks responding to a statement made by JVP MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake that serious changes have been made on the first results of the students after the reassessment of the results of the 2008 GCE A/L examination.

Minister Premajayantha said the UGC has afforded the opportunity to the students to make their appeals before August 2. He said only four months have been taken to issue the examination results of the 2008 A/L Examination while only four months and nine days have been taken to release its reassessment results. "There is no possibility of completing this reassessment process early other than under this time frame.

Therefore no injustice has been caused to any student as no delay has occurred by conducting the reassessment process."

The Minister said no complications had occurred regarding the results of the 2008 GCE A/L examination results. During the past two decades, the UGC has recruited students to universities based on the result sheets issued after the reassessment. Even in 2005, steps were taken to do justice to students regarding a problem that arose in the chemistry multiple choice question paper.

Initiatives were also taken to open a new medical faculty at the Rajarata University for the benefit of these students.

Therefore if any problem has arisen on the reassessment results of the 2008 A/L examination, measures will be taken to overcome it, the Minister added.