The Ministry of Education has scrapped the special quota of 7 percent allocated to the children of past students and the siblings of current students of a school in the Grade Six admissions scheme, according to a circular from the Ministry of Education.
However, Grade Six admission quotas for other special categories of student remain in place.
Special quotas will continue to be awarded to certain privileged categories of student, including the children of Parliamentarians, the children of armed services officers who are on transfer, and the children of expatriates working in Sri Lanka.
Admission to Grade Six will be based on a student’s performance at the Grade Five scholarship examination, and not on the fact that the student is the child, brother or sister of alumni of the school,
Nimal Bandara, Secretary to the Ministry of Education, confirmed that the quota for the families of alumni was being discontinued.
“Students are admitted to Grade Six based on the marks they get at the Grade Five scholarship exam,” he said.
Referring to the other remaining categories in the Grade Six quota system, Mr. Bandara said that preference would be given to students with the best Grade Five scholarship exam results.
He pointed out that many students who had done well at the exam had been denied a place in Grade Six because of the quota system. “I have received complaints that students with lower marks at the scholarship exam have been admitted to Grade Six over students with better results. This is a result of the quota system”, he said.
Ceylon Teachers’ Union chairman Joseph Stalin said that if one category under the quota system was being dropped, then, to be fair by everyone, all special quota categories should be dropped.
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