Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="srgdr" data-source="post: 12972347" data-attributes="member: 375528">The Z-score fiasco had come to an end following the order delivered by the Supreme Court last week to compute the Z-scores of the two examinations separately. The Court also ordered that the students intake for the current academic year should begin by October. However,  there is confusion among the education authorities and by the end of the week they were preparing to go back to the court to seek clarification on the matter. The judgment came as a slap on the face of two ministers handling the subject of Education and Higher Education, so much so Education Minister Bandula Gunawardene told the media refuting claims by Teacher Unions which demanded his resignation, that the Supreme Court has not made any reference to him in the judgment that was delivered in favour of the petitioners.  Sixteen Advanced Level Students and the Ceylon Teachers’ Union filed action against the Z-score assessments finalised by the authorities for University admission in the current year. Minister of Higher Education S.B. Dissanayake had apparently taken the blow and was lying low, knowing very well the implications of trying to criticise the judgment. For Minister Dissanayake it is a case of once bitten and twice shy, when he remembers how he was jailed for contempt of court by the then Chief Justice Sarath .N. Silva during the administration of President Chandrika Kumaratunga. Dissanayake who was an ardent UNP campaigner at the time gave up his UNP politics and joined hands with President Mahinda Rajapaksa after he was pardoned by him. Subsequently,  the President also restored his civic rights. However Minister Gunawardene is still making various excuses and comments over the judgment without accomplishing the responsibilities cast upon him as the Minister of Education. The general perception among the people and the teacher population is Gunawadene who himself is a teacher had contributed toward the down fall of the education system in Sri Lanka under the United People’s Freedom Alliance regime by trying to be innovative without a proper grasp of the subject. Gunawardene is a good teacher in Economics but by far the worst Education Minister Sri Lanka had. He does not want to listen to anybody not even the Teacher Unions who are readily available to help him achieve his objectives in the field of education. His thinking is that singing hosannas to the Rajapaksa regime would be sufficient to save his position as the Minister of Education in Sri Lanka. The Supreme Court in its order had given time until October for the authorities to decide on the new intake to the universities on the strength of the Z-scores calculated separately on the two syllabuses. Nevertheless, it appears that the matter will consume more time owing to procedural delays and the Minister of Education saying that it was not the duty of the Examinations Department to do so passing the buck to the University Grants Commission. In the meantime, both the United National Party and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna  (JVP) had called for the resignations of the two ministers in charge of the subject for their callousness over the matter.  A large number of students lined up to enter other vocations other than the country’s universities - have been affected by the government’s insensitivity towards them. Parents and others interested in the well-being of the students have called for stricter measures against the bureaucrats who are responsible for this mess up. Other than the Z-score controversy, the country is agog with the news of the government’s decision to hold Provincial Council Elections for three provinces before the end of its term. The three provinces are North Central, Sabaragamuwa and Eastern which have already been dissolved by the respective Governors of the area concerned, on the advice of the Chief Ministers of the Province</blockquote>

Verification: Asuwa dahayen wadi kalama keeyada?

Top Bottom