Exams Dept. tasks to be revamped

2 September 2012 09:27 pm

Amidst complaints about errors in question papers and irregularities in Z-scores, the Education Ministry has decided to ‘strengthen’ its supervisory role on the Department of Examination, and to overhaul its functions, officials said.

Ministry Secretary Gotabhaya Jayaratne told the Daily Mirror that he would take steps to restructure the functions of the Department to ensure that its credibility would not suffer in any of its activities in the future.

“Of course, there cannot be any fault on the part of the Department,” he said.  

Mr. Jayaratne said he would not leave any stone unturned in his programme to reform the activities of the Ministry and various institutions coming under it.
Asked about actions to be taken in this exercise, he said the internal administration of the Department would be redeveloped with the assistance of the Ministry of Public Management Reforms.

 “We will look to the capacity development of officials and monitoring them. We will have a review the system and procedure. We are responsible to the parents and students,” he said.

 “I am happy to entertain views of the general public in this regard. Their proposals are welcome. I listen to them patiently. I meet around 500 people who come to the Ministry every Wednesday,” he said.

Besides, he said the teachers who had worked at national schools for more than 20 years would be transferred immediately.

 “I will not hesitate to take action in this case. We have identified certain changes to be done in the school administrative structure,” he said. (Kelum Bandara)