School and exam calendars regularised
View(s):For the first time in more than three years, the Education Ministry has been able to regularise both the school calendar and the calendar for the GCE Ordinary Level and Advanced Level examinations.
Accordingly, the first term of the new school year will commence in the second week of January 2025 Education Minister Susil Premajayantha told Education Times.
The school calendar and examination calendar is being regularised after more than three years, following disruptions from the Covid-19 pandemic, ‘Aragalaya’ protests, fuel shortages, and trade union action including strikes by teachers and refusal by university lecturers to mark
A/Level examination papers for about two months, the Minister said. He said the disruptions pushed the completion of the syllabuses by as much as five months.
“We did a lot of work to get to where we are,” Minister Premajayantha said. He added that authorities were planning to regularise the two calendars by this year, but the strikes in the education sector prevented them from doing so. He blamed the delay on the “union actions of a few people.”
The various disruptions to the school calendar delayed the completion of syllabuses and forced the postponement of exams, which had an enormous negative effect on students. “Those who passed A/Level exams could not go to university, while those who passed O/Level exams could not go to A/Level classes. Students of other classes had to wait more than a term in their old classes,” Dr Premajayantha pointed out.
He said authorities gradually regularised the school and exam calendars by cutting down on end of term holidays and expediting O/Level and A/Level paper marking.
Meanwhile, the Examinations Department said the A/Level exams can now be held in November and O/Level exams in March. The old examination timetable would also be in effect and by 2026, the timetables will be 100% complete and in line with what they were before the pandemic.
- DW
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