SRI LANKA: Problems with university entrance exams – Again

Problems have arisen for the second consecutive year over the results of Sri Lanka’s university entrance examination. Student unions and political parties are complaining of inconsistencies in the just-released 2012 results, in a new fiasco that they say is jeopardising the credibility of the exam system.

The influential Inter University Student Federation (IUSF) said it had found enough examples to prove inaccuracies in the results, in the standardised score known as the ‘Z-score’ and in student rankings.



IUSF Convener Sanjeewa Bandara said that there was an abnormal increase in the number of students who had obtained three ‘A’ passes in the commerce stream, yet many could not get into university, in part because there were not enough places.

According to results released in recent weeks, 6,471 students obtained ‘A’ passes in all three subjects required in the commerce stream. But only about 5,000 candidates from that stream will be able to gain university places.

Voice of Youth Organisation Convener Gayan Janaka said students who obtained the highest marks in the recent A-level examination have not gained places

“When a student obtains three A’s in the A-level exam they are certain that they can enter university. But due to the large number of students admitted this year as well as the high pass rate, many of these students who have worked so hard to get into university are very unlikely to be allowed in,” he said.

“Many students have lost the opportunity to get a higher education. About 220,000 sit the A-level examination every year but only 20,000 are admitted to universities. What happens to the rest of the 200,000? Don’t they have a right to an education?” Janaka asked.

However, Examinations Department Commissioner WMNJ Pushpakumara insisted the results were “100% accurate” and refuted as baseless the IUSF charges of miscalculations.

“A committee and special team were assigned to separately calculate these values and later compared [them] to ensure there were no miscalculations,” Pushpakumara said.

Last year thousands of Sri Lankan students and their parents protested against education officials’ incompetence after their standardised ‘Z scores’ were changed due to miscalculations after the rankings were released.

The Sri Lankan Supreme Court directed the University Grants Commission to admit additional students to local universities. Accordingly, an extra 5,609 students were admitted – a 25% increase over the normal intake.

The IUSF is urging the government once again to admit extra students to state universities.

But Higher Education Ministry Secretary Dr Sunil Jayantha Navaratne said that while the University Grants Commission had decided to admit an additional 5,609 students to universities following the Supreme Court order last year, an extra intake could not be continued this year without improving facilities.

He said resources in universities – including lecturers, lecture halls and laboratories – were not sufficient to accommodate more students again.

The IUSF’s Bandara said the credibility of the country’s examination system had been destroyed, and claimed it was part of the government’s plan to privatise the education system by pushing more students who are unable to get into public universities into private universities.

Frontline Socialist Party member Duminda Nagamuwa said that every student who passed the university entrance examination had a right to enter university. “Parents have put in a massive effort to give education to their children and to get the results of that effort. But government has ended up muddling the lives of students.”