News
Probe into students sitting A-L in 16 districts
Advanced Level students of Janadhipathi Vidyalaya in Nattandiya leaving the school premises after sitting for a paper
The Examinations Department has opened an investigation in 16 districts where they suspect students from other areas are sitting the GCE (Advanced Level) examination in order to obtain easier university entrance.
Education Officers have been sent to the 16 districts, where lower entry grades for university entrance apply, to ascertain whether students had fraudulently registered in schools there to gain the benefit of the lower Z-score, Commissioner-General of Examinations W.M.N.J. Pushpakumara said.
The investigation was launched after it was revealed that more than 50 students who sat the exam from schools in the Nuwara Eliya and Puttalam districts had done so illegally, having come in from other districts.
Mr Pushpakumara said under the Examinations Act action could be taken against the students and if they had fraudulently gained entry to university their registration could be cancelled.
The erring students would be assessed for university entrance at the Z-score level of their home districts.
News about the fraud emerged from a teacher whose child is sitting the Advanced Level exam at the Janadhipathi Vidyalaya at Nattandiya in the Puttalam district.
“The teacher visited the examination centre to wish the child. She saw some other unknown students at the centre, prompting her to contact another teacher on duty to find out from where they had come,” an officer explained.
Rohan Dinu
It was then revealed that about 22 students from various districts such as Galle, Matara, Gampaha, Colombo and Kurunegala had gained admission to sit the exam through a school in Nattandiya, Kottaramulla Al-Hira Maha Vidyalaya, violating the exam rules.
The students had been certified by the principal of that school who had said they had been following science subjects at Kottaramulla Al-Hira Maha Vidyalaya although this school had never had science classes nor even a science laboratory.
Later, under the direction of the Wayamba Province Education Minister Sandya Rajapakse and the province’s Director of Education, H.D. Thilakaratne, the Wennappuwa and Chilaw Zonal
Education Officers opened inquiries into the matter.
The issue has angered parents of children sitting the A-Level exam.
“This is a great misfortune for us who live in a district with few facilities,” one parent, Rohan Dinu, said. “We went through many difficulties to give an education to our children but people have parachuted in to take away advantages from our children.”
“An inquiry should be held to find out which education authorities gave approval to issue science admissions to this school, which has no science facilities,” another parent, Gamini Wijetunge, said. “Only 35-40 students in the Puttalam District gain admission to university and we will get even fewer places when outsiders intrude.”
Last week, more than 30 students registered to sit the exams from St Xavier’s College in Nuwara Eliya were found to have come from outside the district. The principal of the school has been interdicted.
Some of these students were staying in hotels while sitting the exam as they had no residence in the district, the State Minister of Education V. Radhakrishnan, who represents the Nuwara Eliya district in parliament, said.
Gamini Wijetunge
The building in which students from other schools had been staying while allegedly sitting for the A Levels at the Janadhipathi Vidyalaya at Nattandiya