EFSL urges Govt. to postpone 2021 A/L exams
View(s):The Education Forum Sri Lanka (EFSL) called on the Government to postpone the 2021 Advanced Level (A/L) exams scheduled to be held in two months. It pointed out that the A/L syllabus had not been covered.
In a press release last week, it said that a significant section of students have not been able to follow online classes, and it will be unfair to hold exams on November 15 as announced by the Examination Department.
The Education Ministry has not made any effort to prepare children for the exams but has been scheduling, postponing and rescheduling dates in the past months, EFSL said emphasising on the importance of completing the syllabus before exams are held.
It conceded that twenty months of lost work cannot be covered by distance education or in classrooms within a month even if schools reopen next month.
Therefore EFSL called on the Government to reopen schools early, at least for A/L students, and have dedicated television channels to teach the A/L syllabus three months before the exams are scheduled.
It also suggested postponing the Grade five scholarship exams until next year, while holding the exams for the 2022 grade five batch.
This would also mean that the 2021 grade five students would remain in their present schools up to grade six, and would qualify for slots in popular national schools only in 2023. They would be enrolled in the grade seven classes.
However the EFSL pointed out that the Ordinary Level (O/L) exams and grade five scholarship exams serves no purpose and instead students should be tested only in maths and languages (English, Sinhala and Tamil) at grades five, nine, and 11 for streaming purposes.
EFSL further said the pandemic closure of schools is the right time to revisit the present teaching model adopted in schools and adjust or design a new model that would benefit the future generations.
It said the ideal model would be a hybrid model combining classroom teaching with distant education.
Moreover it said the present curriculum needs to be revisited as it is overloaded with content that is not applicable to the job market.
Children are tested on concepts, procedures and problems within a national exams bubble, which focuses mostly on past papers for preparation and does not prepare them to apply and reason in a broader perspective.
EFSL also recommended that the Government take steps to negotiate with teachers and principals, who are on a strike protest demanding revision in their salary anomalies, and bring them back to schools. (CC)