11-Jan-2012i
Guest Column by Dr. Kumar David
The announcement of the GEC (A/L) examination results is the most anxiously awaited moment in the lives of senior year school students, their parents and teachers as these scores determine admission to all the faculties in all Lanka’s universities. This is the all important moment of their lives for about three hundred thousand young men and women who have made it through all the hurdles of the school system. The tension is heightened because only about one in ten, the top achievers, will secure admission to Lanka’s very constricted university space. If the examination results are inaccurate or improperly processed it is pandemonium; there is going to be hell to pay.
Add to this, conspiracy theories that I will come to in a moment, and you can well understand the anxiety and anger across all walks of life. Lanka still has a commendable system of free education from primary school to university and therefore it has been the key avenue of social mobility. Young people from rural and working class backgrounds have used free education as the ladder to professional achievement and better employment opportunities. Now a Pandora’s Box has been flung open and there is no telling how far the repercussions will spread. Full Story>>>
