brand logo

Students suffer uncertainties amidst pandemic

04 Sep 2021

Image caption: Students returning to school as they prepare to take the GCE A/L exam in October last year Photo © Ajith Perera/ Xinhuanet
  • 2020 GCE O/L results further delayed
  • No decision yet on practical exams: CG of Exams
  • Ministry should release provisional exam results: Educationist
By Sarah Hannan As a measure of the continued strike action carried out by the principals’ and teachers’ trade unions, teachers continue to boycott practical examination duties for aesthetic subjects, which is causing a delay in releasing the results of the 2020 GCE Ordinary Level (O/L) exam, it is learnt. Well-placed sources at the Ministry of Education earlier last week hinted to a Sinhala daily paper that the Ministry, along with the Department of Education, was looking at releasing the O/L results without holding the practical exams for aesthetic subjects. The practical exams were scheduled to be held from 28 August to 8 September, and the rehearsals for the same were to be held for a period of one month from 26 July onwards. However, due to the ongoing strike action by education sector trade unions, both the rehearsals and practical exams have not taken place so far. Policy decision on teacher-principal service Following weeks of deliberations over resolving the salary anomalies of teachers and principals, Minister of Education Dinesh Gunawardena last week revealed how the recommendations made by the Cabinet Subcommittee to look into the matter would be implemented. “After taking the recommendations into due consideration, the Cabinet of Ministers decided that policy approval would be granted to implement the recommendations made by the Cabinet Subcommittee. Accordingly, a gazette notification will be issued before 20 November declaring the teacher service, teacher advisory service, and principal service as closed services. The other proposals made by the subcommittee will be implemented within the course of a six-month period, through a special committee appointed by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with provincial councils and other relevant authorities,” Gunawardena explained. Highlighting the decisions taken regarding the resolution of the salary anomaly issue, the Minister of Education revealed that, as instructed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, considering the hardships teachers and principals are facing due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, a special allowance of Rs. 5,000 would be granted for the months of September and October until budgetary allocations would be made to resolve the salary anomaly issue through the 2022 Budget, which would be proposed in November. Furthermore, Gunawardena also stated that the teacher-principal salary anomaly would be resolved in stages through the 2022 Budget, and that the policy decisions in resolving the rest of the issues highlighted by teachers and principals would be carried out in the next four years. TUs reject cabinet decision Meanwhile, the Teachers’ and Principals’ Trade Union Alliance said the cabinet proposal to resolve the teacher-principal salary anomaly issue is not an acceptable solution, adding that trade union action, including the online teacher strike, will continue. Trade union leaders had pointed out that the unions were not ready to give up their struggle to earn due recognition over the quality of their service, safeguard the dignity of their profession, and to secure a salary commensurate with the cost of living to an allowance of Rs. 5,000. Commenting on the matter further, Ceylon Teachers’ Union General Secretary Joseph Stalin said: “The Government had not paid any attention to the proposals put forward by the teachers’ unions. During the meeting with the Minister of Education on 26 August, we proposed that the 2018 salary revision proposal proposed by the then Ministerial Subcommittee be brought as part of the Subodhini Committee report. However, it seems that the Minister, the Cabinet Subcommittee, and the Cabinet of Ministers had ignored our proposal.” Stalin reiterated that if the Government ignores the demands of the trade unions, it will have to continue the struggle that has been going on for 51 days with a strong commitment to withdraw from online education until the demands are met. School level evaluation marks to be considered for practicals? Meanwhile, speaking of the issue with the practical exams, the Ministry of Education official further revealed that out of the 622,000 students who sat for the 2020 O/L exam in March this year, only 170,000 students were scheduled to sit for the practical exam covering the aesthetic subjects of music, dance, and art. The official also opined that delaying the publication of final results due to not being able to hold the practical exams in a timely manner is impacting the continuity of education for the entire batch of students that took the examination. Meanwhile, in July, Prof. G.L. Peiris, who was the Minister of Education at the time, stated that experts were being consulted on whether it was mandatory to conduct practical tests amidst the pandemic. Prof. Peiris revealed, at the time, that a technical committee was looking into the possibility of whether the evaluation marks obtained by schools could be used as practical test scores for the national exam, without any disadvantage to the students. However, when The Sunday Morning spoke to Commissioner General (CG) of Examinations B. Sanath Pujitha for clarification over the matter, he stated: “The matter of practical exams and the delay in releasing the GCE O/L results was taken up for discussion. We are still reviewing the options on how to grade the students with and without the results of the practical examinations.” We then spoke to renowned educationist and Education Forum Sri Lanka Co-Founder Dr. Sujata Gamage on how not holding practical exams could impact the quality of the exam results, if the Ministry of Education decides to publish the results without the practical test scores, and whether it would be a disadvantage for students, should they consider the evaluation marks obtained at school level. Responding to this, Dr. Gamage stated: “It is a difficult situation to respond to, and my sympathies are with the Ministry of Education. I don’t think considering the school-based evaluation marks would be the best option, as the standards of evaluation at school level vary from school to school. The best option the Ministry and the Department of Examinations have at the moment is to release the provisional exam results for those students who are yet to sit for the practical exams, and once schools reopen, they could hold the practical exams for the aesthetic subjects and release the final results for those students.” Dr. Gamage also shared that following a policy dialogue on the “Emergency Preparedness of Schools”, one of the recommendations was to restructure education systems. This would cover curriculars, pedagogy, assessments, and education administration, allowing teachers and students to seamlessly move from school-based education to distance education and vice versa. This would be done by implementing the below:
  • Providing devices and offline digital content for students, ensuring that all students have textbooks and workbooks at least
  • Focus on basic subjects such as language and maths, encourage teachers to teach other content through evocative tasks and project-based approaches, and pay more attention to social emotional learning (SEL)
  • Give agency to children to become self-directed learners
  • Improve the rigour of school-based assessments, such that they can be credible substitutes for national exams, and identify ways of rewarding schools for success in imparting SEL
  • Communicate the importance of delegating education delivery to schools or peripheral authorities and focus on policy coherence for national-level decision-makers
Attempts made by The Sunday Morning to contact Ministry of Education Secretary Prof. Kapila Perera and Minister of Education Dinesh Gunawardena on several occasions for comment proved futile.


More News..