SC - Ministry of Education on collision course?

By Isuri Kaviratne

Proximity to schools will once again be the main critera for admission of pupils to Grade One. According to Secretary to the Ministry of Education Nimal Bandara, the proposed Grade One Circular for 2009 is under review and will be signed and confirmed after amendments are made. He said the circular would be made public by the end of the month.

He said testing of children would be eliminated from the marking scheme and proximity to the school would be considered when selecting Grade One applicants. Fifty percent of admissions would be on the basis of proximity to the school and twenty-five percent under the past pupil category. Fifteen and ten percent would be admitted under the category of siblings, government transfers and those employed abroad for more than a 3 year period.

“42 students will be admitted to a class, of these 35 will be selected through interviews and an additional 7 would be reserved for children whose parents serve in the forces. These students will be nominated by the DefenceSecretary”, Bandara explained.
The secretary said the circular would be signed as soon as the amendments are made and it would be made public by the end of the month.

However, the guidelines set by the Ministry of Education with the concurrence of the National Education Commission differ from the guidelines set by the Supreme Court last year regarding the abolishing of the quota system which has been re-activated under the new guidelines.

Under the guidelines proposed up by the Supreme Court, marks were given under various categories and applicants who obtained the highest marks were to be selected to the school. Proximity was not to be considered as an issue when selecting children to a school. However intervention by various interested parties led to proximity being made an issue.

The 2006 circular for grade one admission included a similar system for admitting students to grade one based on a quota system. However under the present guidelines, the quotas differ from the guidelines introduced in 2006.