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Law entrants now oppose changed syllabus
View(s):Despite registration of students for admission to the Sri Lanka Law College commencing after a three-week delay, the student union threatens to continue with its protests over the revision of the entrance exam syllabus.
On February 1, the Law College decided to open registration of students who scored well at the entrance exams last year. This was about a month after the allegation that the Tamil medium paper was leaked prior to the exam and that discrepancies existed when issuing results.
Though the demand from the Law Entrance Students’ Union was to re-conduct the exams, the Law College administration decided to bring down the cut-off mark from 69 to 66 and enroll an additional 242 students increasing the total number to 551 unlike the other years where the number was less than 300.
It was also decided to revise the law entrance examination syllabus from one subject to two. Since 1998, the exam consisted of one subject which was a background to law but the latest syllabus includes a language paper and a paper for general knowledge and intelligence. It was made mandatory for students to sit for one paper in English.
“We appreciate the fact that the cut-off marks were reduced from 69 to 66 following the Tamil paper being leaked. But as the paper was leaked the exam paper should have been reset. However, we are against the revising of the syllabus,” the union spokesman said.
He also said the change in the syllabus will affect students who are not fluent in English. English is not made mandatory even in administrative services exams. This is a violation of student rights, he charged. He said that if the administration fails to restore the previous syllabus, more students will get on to the streets and protest.
He said unlike the Ordinary Level or Advanced Level examination paper marking which is completed within two weeks, the law entrance paper marking takes up to four months. But the Law College administration has decided to go ahead with the latest syllabus.
Law College Principal Dr. W.D. Rodrigo said the decision to revise the syllabus was in the best interests of the legal profession. He said the latest syllabus has been the entrance exam syllabus from 1971 to 1998.
“This method has been tested for decades,” Dr. Rodrigo said. The papers will be prepared in all three languages for students to choose one in Sinhala or Tamil language.
Saliya Peiris, Chairman of Centre for Professional Studies (CFPS) that conducts law entrance classes said the decision to change the syllabus is a good move but added students sitting this year will find it difficult with only a few months left for the 2013 entrance exam.
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