The controversial Z-score has taken centre-stage. Like a tornado, it has hit the GCE A/L student community that sat the 2011 examination under two syllabi, with great hopes and ambition. Now they are groping in the dark with the outcome of the revisited Z score. This is a very unfortunate state of affairs, with those in charge of education and examinations playing musical chairs and showing no sense of responsibility.
The Z-score muddle has become a festering sore following the revision.
Who has put the young hopefuls in this dire predicament?
Amidst controversy and strong opposition, the two Ministers S. B. Dissanayake and Bandula Gunawardena continue to remain in the saddle, maintaining that they had no hand in the Z-score muddle. They are happily saying the Supreme Court has not passed any strictures on them. This is the type of official we have in the Cabinet, enjoying all the perks and holding responsible education portfolios.
Does their Cabinet portfolio not demand accountability, responsibility and transparency? Whoever is responsible for this fiasco should be taken to task and made to pay for the utter confusion in the country’s academic landscape.
Parents who struggle to give their children the best are in a dilemma. Who cares? With the new Z-score, students who gained admission to university now find they are shut out.
These young minds could have a mental breakdown. This could have a crippling impact on their academic life. There are also proposals to allow the students to sit the exam for the fourth time. It is those who failed to make the grade under the two Z scores who should take the exam a fourth time.
To be fair to the others, candidates who were successful in terms of either score should be given a university place to follow their selected course of study. This is the best solution to allay the fears of parents and placate their children who have undergone a severe ordeal through no fault of their own.
M. Azhar Dawood,
Dehiwela
Comments
RSS feed for comments to this post