13 principals told to submit Grade-5 admission details
26 February 2015 07:11 pm
The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the Principals of 13 national schools including Colombo Royal College, Ananda College and Nalanda College to submit details of students admitted to Grades-1 to 6 during the past three years and those admitted to these schools in 2013 on the results of the Grade-5 scholarship examination.
The other 10 colleges are as follows: D.S. Senanayake, Isipathana, Thurstan, Mahanama, Devi Balika, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Vishaka, Gothami Balika, Richmond College in Galle, and Rahula College in Matara.
This order was made sequent to a fundamental rights petition filed by the Ceylon Teachers’ Association and a group of parents being taken up for hearing by a three-judge Supreme Court bench comprising Priyasad Dep, Buwaneka Aluvihare and Upali Abeyratne. The hearing was fixed for March 31.
Thirteen petitioners filed this petition citing the 13 school principals as respondents.
The petitioners said their children had passed the Grade-5 scholarship examination in 2013 and when they sought admission to the mentioned schools they were informed that the cut-off marks had been raised when compared with the previous year and on this basis the children were refused admission to these schools.
However, inquiries had revealed that there existed a serious congestion in the Grades-2 to 5 classrooms because the approved number of 45 had been exceeded.
(Ranjan Katugampola and Thilini De Silva)