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No programme to hold A/L, Scholarship exams: Priyantha Fernando

22 Sep 2021

  • Unions allege Govt. attempting to sabotage TU actions
BY Buddhika Samaraweera Claiming that the Government is misusing the General Certificate of Education (GCE) Advanced Level (A/L) examination and Grade Five Scholarship examination to sabotage the ongoing trade union (TU) actions by teachers and principals demanding solutions to their salary anomaly issue, the teachers’ trade unions have alleged that the Education Ministry and the Examinations Department have not yet formulated any programme to hold the said examinations in November. Speaking to The Morning, Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU) President Priyantha Fernando claimed that the Government and other pro-Government parties are attempting to propagate a notion that the A/L and Scholarship examinations cannot be held due to the teachers’ and principals’ ongoing trade union actions. Pointing out that Covid-19 vaccination is essential for students to sit for the A/L examination, he said that the authorities, including the Education Ministry, have however failed to formulate a practical plan to vaccinate students. “A very important factor in holding the A/L examination is the provision of Covid-19 vaccines to students who are scheduled to sit for it, but so far, no practical arrangements have been made in this regard. Instead, they are only making statements to the media. For instance, even though the Government stated that it would provide Covid-19 vaccines to teachers since the inception of the Covid-19 pandemic, they took so long to do it. Similarly, they are now saying that vaccines would be given to students too. But we know that it is not something that will take place in the near future,” he added. Further claiming that not covering the syllabus for the students who are scheduled to sit for the A/L examination is a serious problem, Fernando added that only about 30% of the syllabus has been covered for about 320,000 students who are scheduled to sit for the A/L examination for the first time. “Even before the commencement of the ongoing trade union actions, the Government had not established a programme to properly carry out education-related activities. Especially, there were not enough facilities for all children to receive online education, and therefore, their syllabus was not fully covered. Even United National Party MP Ranil Wickremesinghe has stated this in Parliament,” he noted. He further said: “In such a backdrop, the Government and pro-Government parties are attempting to propagate the view that these examinations cannot be held due to our trade union actions.” Wickremesinghe recently inquired from Education Minister Dinesh Gunawardena about reports that the A/L syllabus has not been covered so far. Accordingly, he requested Gunawardena to take steps to inquire into matters pertaining to it and to hold the examination. “Several students have stated that the syllabus is not fully covered. I have met some of them too. Therefore, I would like to request you to take steps to look into the matter and to hold the exam,” Wickremesinghe said in Parliament. In response, Gunawardena stated that the Education Ministry is currently focusing on holding the A/L examination. He also said that several rounds of discussions have been held with Examinations Commissioner General Sanath Pujitha in this regard. In July 2021, the A/L examination was postponed until November 2021 considering the current Covid-19 pandemic situation. Accordingly, the A/L examination, which was scheduled to be held in October 2021, is to be held from 15 November to 10 December 2021. However, while claiming that the Examinations Department has only received 50% of the applications for the A/L examination which is to be held in November 2021, the teachers’ and principals’ trade unions, which are currently engaged in a series of trade union actions, have warned that they would not send the remaining applications until their issues are resolved. As of now, the teachers and principals have withdrawn from duties related to sending applications for examinations including the A/L examination, online. In addition, they have also withdrawn from applying for examination-related duties, including those of the A/L examination. Education Ministry Secretary Prof. Kapila Perera and Pujitha were unavailable for comment on the matter.  

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