Overall improvement in GCE A/L results
View(s):The number of GCE A/L candidates who qualified for university entrance in 2017, was more than in 2016, according to an analysis of the results by the Exams Dept. The number of candidates who secured 3As also increased. In 2017, 253,330 candidates, both private and Governemnt school, sat the exam, while in 2016 the number was 258,193.
The number eligible for university entrance in 2017, rose to 163,104 (64.38%), from 160,520 (62.17%) in 2016. In 2016, 7,126 (2.176%) secured 3As, while in 2017, the number increased to 8,267 (3.26%). In 2017, 16.08% passed only 2 subjects and 10.84% passed only in 1 subject.
Candidates who failed in all subjects was almost the same in 2016 and 2017, with 22,392 (8.69 %) and 22,021 (8.67 %), respectively, with very small decrease in 2017. In the Commerce stream, success in Economics and Accounting increased from 2016, while Business Studies saw a drop from 90.40% to 87.38%. Physics and Chemistry also had small hikes in their success rates, while Biology dropped from 75.52% in 2016 to 75.49% in 2017.
The Arts stream, with 70.14%, had the highest percentage of candidates eligible for university entrance, followed by the Commerce stream with 69.38%, Bio Systems Technology 61.74%, Engineering Technology 57.7%, Bio Science 56.88% and Physical Science 54.82% in descending order of eligibility.
The percentages of 3As was Commerce stream 5.69%, Arts 3.97% and Physical Science 1.84% (590), while 17.66% (5,664) failed in all subjects. In Bio Science 1.25 % (554) secured 3As while 13.99% (6,192) failed in all subjects. Sabaragamuwa Province had the highest percentage of university eligible candidates at 67.11% followed by Uva Province with 65.68%. However, when considering only school candidates, as opposed to all candidates, Northern Province performed best with 68.37% eligible for university entrance. Eastern province had the lowest qualifying rate at 58.06%.
Mannar District with 68.41% had the highest percentage of candidates qualifying for university entrance, followed by Ratnapura, Moneragala, Matara and Mullaitivu. In the WP, Colombo District with 18,770 (65%) qualifying for university entrance, was the highest, followed by Kurunegala with 13,664 (64.88%) and Gampaha with 14,505 (63.18%).
Ampara District had the lowest qualifying rate at 56.54%, followed by Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Polonnaruwa and Kilinochchi.