Repeat of 2011 imbroglio?

JVP fires first shot over likely university selection dispute this year

By Saman Indrajith

Thousands of students who had sat the 2019 GCE Advanced Level examination were in difficulty as the government failed to release their cut-off marks to select universities 14 months after the exam; JVP led Socialist Students Union said yesterday.

National Organiser of the SSU, Rangana Devapriya, addressing the media, at the JVP headquarters in Pelawatte said the government had taken more than one year to release the cut-off marks for the 2019 examination. “The cut-off marks should have been released before commencing this year’s GCE Advanced Level exam so that those who could not obtain enough marks could sit this year’s exam. They have been deprived of that chance.

In 2019 students sat the examination under two syllabuses. Therefore the marks would be released under two categories. There would be two types of district rankings, national rankings and Z-scores. When there are two categories of subjects, a single common Z-score cannot be made for both categories. When their exam results were released, the students had some idea of their district and national rankings, and it is natural for the top performers to await university admission. The authorities should have made known how many students would be admitted to universities by releasing the cut-off marks but they waited till this year’s exam started to do so.”

The SSU National Organiser said that the UGC had stated that they would decide the number of students to be selected to the universities on the basis of guidelines set by a Supreme Court decision in 2011. “This is a lie. In 2011, there were two cases with regard to Z-score before the Supreme Court. None of them said the students of both streams should be selected from a common list. The determination was about how the Z score should be calculated. It called two sets of Z-score rankings. Thereafter education authorities prepared separate Z-score rankings for the two syllabuses and prepared a combined list. Then hundreds of students filed eight fundamental rights cases. Finally, the Supreme Court directed that the students be enrolled on the basis of highest rankings in the district and national ranking lists.  That method led to the admission of 5,609 students in addition to the intake of 21,500 students in that year. That was a 26% increase. Now, the UGC has come out with a Combined Mean Score, which is an unfair method. We are against this unjust action and will fight for the students who have been deprived of their right to higher education owing to the actions of UGC authorities.

“In 2011, hundreds of students and parents went to courts. They waited for months and took to the streets. We hope that a similar situation will not arise again. We call upon the UGC and government to solve the problem faced by thousands of students without trying to hoodwink them.”