Ten marks for English oral, attention skills at O-Ls

Chaminda Perera

The government will allocate 10 marks for English oral and listening competence at the GCE Ordinary Level examination from 2015 to promote English language learning among students. Students sitting for the GCE Ordinary Level will be given 90 marks for the written paper while 10 marks will be given for oral and listening skills, Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena said.

The Education Ministry is adopting a mechanism to give marks for students' practical skills in aesthetic subjects and the same procedure would be adopted to test their English oral and listening skills, he said.

Committees have been appointed under the directive of Education Ministry Monitoring MP Mohan Lal Grero for school base assessment, the minister said.

The minister said over 26,000 teachers have been trained for this and teachers can also make use of facilities made available by the government to further improve their knowledge.