G.C.E (A/L) exam to be postponed: MINISTER

Education Minister Susil Premajayantha today told Parliament that the G.C.E (A/L) examination due to held later this year will be further delayed considering appeals to postpone the exam.

In a special statement to Parliament, he said that the Commissioner General of Examinations will announce specific dates next week.

“However due to the delay of paper marking, the G.C.E Advance level examination was delayed. The examination which was initially planned to be held October was postponed to November 27 to December 21, 2023” he said

He added that once again students called for postponed for the examination and later was followed by both government and opposition members who also called for postponement of the exam at the parliament recently.

He added that the coverage of syllabus, dropping of attendance occurred during the pandemic period and following the economic constraints, Aragalaya protests further affected the delayed the G.CE O/L’s, G.C.E Advance level as well as grade 5 scholarship exams and paper marking.

As a result of this the entry into state universities too have delayed along with the students getting delayed to apply for foreign universities in their proper ages due to delays of exams and obtaining results.

 Mr Premajayantha also pointed out that there is a gamut of issues occur if GCE A/L examination scheduled 2023 gets postponed to January 2024. If that happens the G.CE O/ L examination of scheduled to be held 2024 March to April would be forced to be postponed to Month of May or July, the advance level exam results too would be released on July.

“Then the students who would be expecting to face G.CE Advance level exams 2024 would also need to be given extra time as this year’s advance level batch of student’s. Therefore the delay of the education system cannot be corrected if exams are postponed once more”, he said       

He said that the delay of exams would delay the grade one school intake of students for the following batch delayed.