Two views on conducting A/L exam in October: Minister

There are two views regarding the dates of the GCE Advanced Level (A/L) Examination and a flexible and more practical decision should be taken following technical advice, Education Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris said.

Addressig the media after flagging off the programme for vaccinating the officers attached to Examinations Department today, he said at least 200, 000 school candidates are to sit for the A/L examination for the first time and about 150,000 candidates for the second time.

"The candidates who sat for the examination requested the Ministry to postpone it, as it is difficult to complete the syllabus. But the candidates who sat for the examination for the second time requested the Ministry to go ahead with the exam in October. Therefore, a fair decision has to be made in this context. The Examinations Department has a pivotal role to play. As an initial step, officials of the Examinations Department and the Education Ministry were vaccinated today," the Minister said.

"Another problem has arisen in issuing the results of the GCE O/L Examination. There is an issue about conducting the practical exam for the students who have studied eight Aesthetic subjects. Therefore, there wad a delay in releasing the results," he said.

"169,000 candidates out of the 622,000 who have studied aesthetics subjects, sat for the O/L Exam. If practical tests can not be conducted, then we are faced with the question of whether the results will be released after scoring in the school-based assessment," Minister Peiris said.

The decision is expected to be taken based on the technical advice after examining the relationship between the overall results of the previous year and the practical tests, he added. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)