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Education Minister lone defender of holding A/Level exam in November
View(s):By Ryan Casiechetty
concerns have been voiced in various forums, including the Parliament, about whether the 2023 G.C.E. Advanced Level Examination, scheduled for November, should be held or postponed.
Students, teachers, and teacher trade unions are against the decision while Education Minister Susil Premajayantha has pointed out the importance of holding it in November. In Parliament Minister Premajayantha defended the decision, saying if the A/L exam is postponed, it would negatively affect subsequent exams, including the G.C. E. Ordinary Level Exam, set for the first quarter of next year. He said a postponement would also affect the completion of the syllabus for the 2024 academic year.
All smiles after seeing their A/Level results
The Minister was responding to requests by both Government and opposition MPs, including Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, Dullas Alahapperuma, Wimal Weerawansa, and Sarath Weerasekara, to postpone the exam.
The Minister said the school system was already working to a plan whereby the number of holidays between school terms are being reduced. This is being done with the aim of bringing back the yearly examination timetable to what existed in 2019, (pre-COVID-19), he said.
He said initially the A/Level exam was to be held in October and it was postponed to November. The dates were announced about four months earlier and the students have had enough time to prepare.
This exam has been scheduled in such a way that it covers the December school holidays for the other grades as well and there was no need to provide an extra month of holidays, he explained.
The Minister went onto say that a majority of the schools and tuition classes have already covered the syllabuses and given students adequate time to prepare for the examination well in advance. Also, there is a fair amount of time remaining for the schools to conduct one more term examination in preparation for the Advanced Level Examination.
Susil Premajayantha
The Minister said only 50,000 students of the estimated 330,000 applicants due to sit the A/L examination have called for a postponement of the examination citing incompletion of syllabuses. Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa and other MPs called the Minister to reconsider the decision on the grounds that a number of schools in the provinces have not been able to complete the syllabuses and need more time to prepare for the exam.
Education sector trade unions have also called for a postponement. Ceylon Teacher’s Service Union General Secretary Mahinda said the Government should postpone the examination to be fair by all students, especially those from rural areas.
All-Island Professional Lecturer’s Association president Ravindra Bandara said although tuition classes islandwide had already covered the relevant syllabuses a majority of the schools had not.
Ceylon Teacher’s Union General Secretary Joseph Stalin said that more attention must be given to the country’s education system structurally. He emphasised that second-shy students do not have enough time to prepare for the exam. The Ministry of Education plans to hold the examination from November 27 to December 21.
Students who wish to repeat the examination have been requested to apply between September 11 and 16 and to those who wish to submit their results for re-correction between September 7 and September 16. These can be done via the website: (https://onlineexams.gov.lk/eic/)
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