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Improper conduct of Law College 2014 final exam, claim students
View(s):A group of students from the Sri Lanka Law College alleged ‘discrepancies and irregularities’ in the conduct of the College’s final year exam in October 2014, saying the authorities failed to afford them justice. The allegations surfaced after the results of the exam in January were released, with the aggrieved students claiming that the manner in which marks were given is questionable, as those who scored high in most subjects, scored purely in Civil Law 1 & 2 and Commercial Law 1 papers.
As the aggrieved students’ appeals for remedial action were ignored by the Law College, they complained to the Council of Legal Education, which has asked the students to hand in a common appeal to re-correct these papers.“But when the marks were released on May 9, we saw that the marks were changed arbitrarily. When we spoke to the Examinations Commissioner Dr Anura Edirisinghe, he said that our individual appeals were taken into consideration when they re-corrected the papers. We were clearly told only a common appeal will be taken into consideration,” a Law College student told the Sunday Times.
She said that, when the students complained once more to the College authorities, they decided to reduce the average pass mark from 50 to 45. Students claim this is not a solution. The general rule of the Law College is that, students who pass in all subjects, but fail to reach the average pass mark of 50, are given a General Written Test (GWT), while students who passed a subject but attained the average pass mark, have to sit for a Subject Written Test (SWT).
“However, with this solution, the GWT students are safe while the SWT students are not given justice,” the students argued.
Meanwhile, Law College authorities have decided to start the Practical Training Programme this Monday, while a notice was issued stating that GWT and SWT exams were to be held on Friday (10).
“We need a proper solution to this because, if we are to sit for the exams, we would miss the practical lessons. This is the fault of the College authorities, but the students are being punished unjustly,” a student who wished to remain anonymous, said.
They said that the only possible solution to the issue is to give a common mark to all students.
“After granting the aforesaid general mark to all the affected students, grant GWT to the students above an average as you deem fit. There is an exceptional circumstance with regard to some students (around 10) where in those subjects they have obtained an average above 50%, but have unreasonably gone down in one subject. Hence they have to repeat the entire exam which is completely unfair,” the students said in an appeal written to the Council of Legal Education.
Law College Principal Dr. Jayatissa de Costa P.C. when contacted declined to comment.