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Cancel Year Five Scholarship exam, says union; political conspiracy, says minister
Calls to revoke last Sunday’s Year Five Scholarship exam grew yesterday amidst a probe on leaked question papers but an embattled Education Minister said the latest crisis to hit the education sector could be a political conspiracy.
The Criminal Investigation Department is probing complaints that the question paper was out in some areas ahead of the examination.
Among those who lodged the complaint was Subasinghe, whose son sat the examination at a Polgahawela centre. He said in his complaint that on Saturday, a teacher from St. Bernard’s College in Polgahawela had invited Year Five students sitting the exam to discuss the next day’s question paper.
He claimed that the students who took part in the discussion had prior knowledge about the questions that came for the exam.
He said he took this matter up with the authorities but they took no measures to look into his complaint.
Meanwhile, the JVP-affiliated Ceylon Teacher Services Union (CTSU) has sent two letters to Examinations Commissioner W. M. N. J Pushpakumara, drawing his attention to the controversy surrounding the Year Five Scholarship exam and urging him to take action to correct the situation.
The union says in its letter that some students and parents in Padaviya, Ruwanpura, Rambukkana, Polgahawela and Debarawewa knew about the questions on the second paper well before the examination was held.
It also claims that some students who sat the examination at Anura Maha Vidyalaya in Yakkala, Dharmaloka College in Kelaniya, Sri Bodhi Vidyalaya in Gampaha, Alayapaththuwa Maha Vidyalaya in Anuradhapura, Bandaranaike College in Kantale and Gurukula Vidyalaya in Kelaniya had access to the leaked second paper during the half-an-hour break — between 10.15 a.m. and 10.45 a.m. – after the first paper.
Union Secretary Mahinda Jayasinghe said the only way to resolve the latest crisis to hit the country’s education system — which has been plagued by the Z-score crisis and mistakes in GCE Advanced Level question papers — was to cancel the exam and hold a fresh one.
“The examination should be conducted again. Otherwise it will be a great injustice to students who were scrupulous,” he said.
However, Education Minister Bandula Gunawadena, told the Sunday Times that the authenticity of these complaints were yet to be proved.
He said he suspected that this was part of bigger political conspiracy. “The issue here is not about the paper being leaked but the paper containing questions about the National Anthem and the National Flag. In one question on the paper, students were asked to write three sentences about the National Flag but some parties complained that students were asked to write an essay on the National Flag and that this question was leaked before the examination,” he said.
The Minister, who has come under severe criticism for the Z-score fiasco, said he had requested the CID to conduct an investigation to find out the authenticity of these complaints and if it was proved that question papers had been leaked, measure would be taken against the culprits. However he said the ministry had no plans to cancel the examination.
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