Committee to probe A-L results issue

*Obsolete Examinations Act to be amended

*No student victimised in district rankings

Dharma SRI ABEYRATNE

A four member Experts Committee will be appointed with immediate effect by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to look into issues related to releasing the GCE Advanced Level examination 2011 results, Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena said.

Minister Gunawardena addressing the media at the Examinations Department yesterday, said the committee which will be appointed by the president will consist of three Vice Chancellors and a Supreme Court judge. “This experts committee will forward suggestions and recommendations to the Education and Higher Education Ministries to prevent a repetition of similar issues,” he said.

“Besides, the committee will scrutinize the 1968 Examinations Act and forward suggestions aiming to make required amendments to the Act. It is vital to amend the Examinations Act to meet present-day requirements in the education sector since this Act was formulated in 1968. After amending the Act, the Examinations Department will be able to conduct examinations effectively,” he said.

“Since the Examinations Act has been formulated many years ago, it is hard to address present-day issues such as taking disciplinary action against examination malpractices,” he said..

“According to the Examinations Act, in practise, the Examinations Department fails to take certain measures,” Minister Gunawardena said.

Therefore, he said the experts committee will forward suggestions and recommendations to the present Examinations Act while looking into the issues related to result releasing. All these steps have been taken to avoid the occurrence of the same situation.

Answering a question raised by a journalist, the minister said that no student has been victimised through the process of rearranging district rankings. There is nothing wrong with the answer scripts evaluation process, Z score and island rankings. The minister admitted that certain shortcomings have been reported with the district ranking which have already been rectified.