NEC grade one admission circular suspended

By Isuri Kaviratne

Deputy Minister of Education Nirmala Kotalawala said the Education Ministry is to put forward a fresh circular on grade one admissions for 2008, after Government this week suspended the National Education Commission (NEC) proposals.

The new proposals which were discussed by the President and the NEC last week are presently under consideration. The Deputy Minister explained that the opinion of the principals and other educationists too would be looked into before finalising the proposals.

He added that permission of the Supreme Court, to carry on with the 2008 admissions would be needed until a proper circular was formulated as this could take time.

The Courts had earlier ordered NEC to submit proposals for a National Policy on grade one admissions. He said that last year’s circular should be amended in order to scrap provisions that breached fundamental rights.

The Deputy Minister said responsibility to make the temporary proposals had not been assigned as yet and the Ministry expected Court to appoint a party to look into it by next week.He told the Sunday Times that the NEC had identified the main problems government and principals faced when admitting students to grade one. He added it took time to make national policy and the NEC had asked the President for more time to finalise the proposals.

A. V. Suraweera, the Commissioner General of the NEC said that the NEC was not responsible for making proposals for the temporary circular. “It’s up to the Education Ministry. We were told to make proposals for the National Policy, not for the temporary circular”, he said.

“It is still not too late to call for applications for grade one as in any other year”, he said.The Commissioner General said that proposals would be open for consideration till the opinion of the public is looked into. He declined to explain what those proposals were.

Though Government issued a statement denying plans to separate the primary sections from National schools, The Sunday Times last week said that it was likely to be included in the new proposals.

However, the Sunday Times learns that it had been included in the proposals which the President had suspended.