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Authorities throw the book at each other for term-test mess
Serious blunders in term test question papers in several provinces are causing major problems for students and parents – while authorities are blaming each other for the mess. North Central Province’s Education Minister Peshala Jayaratne said the shortage of permanent administration officers and in-service advisors was the reason that affected the grade six Sinhala examination paper.
He was commenting on the blunder where the answers for six questions in the Sinhala second paper were printed on the fourth page of the paper. The examination which was to be held last Tuesday (16) has been postponed to July 30. Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena said the Provincial Councils were responsible for the setting of term test papers and he believed there was some shortcoming on the part of the chairman and officials of the PC.
“We set the the question papers for year five scholarship, GCE Ordinary Level and Advanced Level examinations. The question papers for school term tests are the responsibility of the PCs. We have told provincial education officials to carry out their duties properly,” he said.
Provincial Minister Jayaratne said the blunder could have been avoided if province had competent officials and most of them were working on a temporary basis. So they apparently did not take the responsibilities seriously. “We have informed the Education Ministry regarding this shortcoming but we have not got a favourable response. We need more than 460 in-service advisors but only about 200 are working now,” he said.
Mr. Jayaratne said a teacher was given the responsibility to proof read the Sinhala question papers but the teacher had apparently failed to do this job properly. “The provincial ministry secretary is carrying out an investigation and those responsible for the blunder will be punished.”
Meanwhile, Lanka Teacher Services Union (LTSU) General Secretary Mahinda Jayasinghe said the whole system had failed. “The motto of the NCP’s Education Ministry is education first but it has not taken practical measures to ensure a good education system. The officials in charge of education are often politically influenced.
“The students and the parents are the innocent victims of these official blunders and the students will have to sit the examinations again,” he said. The union leader charged that Provincial Education Director Nirmala Ekanayake should take the responsibility for the blunder.
Errors in term test papers have been reported in other areas also. The Grade 11 Buddhism paper of the Anamaduwa Division in Puttalam was to have 40 questions, but it had only 20 when it reached the students on Monday. The zonal education authorities cancelled the paper.
In addition there were several mistakes in the Buddhism and Life Skills term test question papers in the Piliyandala Education Zonal Division. Union leader Jayasinghe said the questions themselves were wrong and it was not just the case of typographical errors.
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