Grade 1 admissions: Ministry to go to court

By Isuri Kaviratne

The Education Ministry will seek the intervention of the Supreme Court to solve the issues of Grade one admission selections by submitting information of applicants who have not been selected even though living in close proximity to schools, Education Ministry secretary, M.M.N.D. Bandara said.

He said the Ministry would gather information on applicants who have not been selected even though living close to schools and on applicants who had forwarded false documents and would submit them to courts with a motion to resolve the issue.

He said school principals and Zonal Education directors were asked to go ahead with the appeals and objections and to report to the Ministry if there were unresolved cases which the Ministry would forward to the Supreme Court. The parents too were being asked to submit their reports to the Ministry on applicants who are alleged to have forwarded false documents.

“But we can’t say that any of the addresses are wrong as any address within the district could be counted as a qualified address to apply for Grade One admissions”, he said. Coincidentally, the complaint of parents islandwide is that applicants residing in close proximity to schools have lost marks on suitability of the child whereas applicants residing far away and those who forwarded false documents have received maximum marks in the same category.

Meanwhile, the parents of children who are residing close to schools like Ananda, Nalanda, D.S. Senanayake, Isipathana, Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Visakha said they would file fundamental rights violation cases in the Supreme Court pending the conclusion of the Appeals and Objections Board would come to regarding their individual cases.