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Exams Chief refutes charges, says GCE A/L results are 100 per cent correct
View(s):By Hansani Bandara
Examinations Commissioner W. M. N. J. Pushpakumara yesterday refuted charges by a leading student body about miscalculations in the G.C.E. Advanced Level Examination results and said the results were ‘100 per cent accurate’.
Responding to the allegations Examinations Commissioner Pushpakumara said all the accusations are made based on a misconception which needs to be corrected.
He said that apart from the four traditional streams another stream was introduced which is called ‘Other Subjects stream’. He said this stream was introduced to give students the freedom to sit any subject they like without being confined to a specific stream and where they will be able to study combinations of subjects from different streams.
“Mostly, mixed combinations of subjects of the other streams fall under the ‘Other Subjects’ stream and is often confused with the Arts stream.
There are about 1,700 students who sat the exam from this stream and therefore, separate district and island ranks and Z scores were calculated for this stream as well. Parties who claim there are faults in the calculation of district and island ranks and Z scores make accusations on the basis of the comparison district/island ranks or Z scores of two separate streams,” he explained.
He said special attention as such was not given to specifically make the papers easy or hard when papers were set this time. Last year, the papers set were quite difficult to answer and students who sat the exam this time, having used those papers as model papers, were prepared to answer their papers.
Even tuition class prepared students were able to answer difficult papers, so students found this year’s papers easier to answer. In the background of recent issues with regards to Z scores, this time a special procedure was followed in the calculation of district/ island ranks and Z scores.
A committee which consisted of three university academics was appointed by the University Grants Commission to separately calculate these values while there was another committee and a team of officials at the Department appointed to calculate and make two separate reports on ranks and Z scores. At the conclusion of the calculations, all the three reports were compared to ensure there were no miscalculations.
Amidst of all the accusations and chaos with regards to results, Sabaragamuwa Province has the highest pass rate in both old and new syllabi with rates of 64.89 and 65.68 per cent respectively. Uva and Southern provinces scored percentages 64.77 and 64.35 respectively having the second and the third best pass rates under the new syllabus.
The same provinces scored second and third positions with the highest pass rates in the old syllabus as well. The Southern Province had the second highest pass rate of 63.85 per cent while Uva secured the third position with 63.51 per cent.
The Inter University Students Federation (IUSF) Convener Sanjeewa Bandara told the Sunday Times that there were sufficient instances to prove that there are inaccuracies adding that the credibility of the examination system of the country has been destroyed.
The IUSF questioned the increase in the number which passed in the Commerce stream after some 6,471 candidates passed with three As each.
Mr. Bandara claimed that it was part of the Government’s plan to commercialize the education system by promoting more private universities.
“Even though there are 6,000 students who obtained ‘A’ passes in all subjects in the Commerce stream, only about 4,000 of them can be accommodated in state universities. They will encourage the rest to go to private universities since students who obtained highest results will not be willing to sit the exam again,” he said.
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