A/L CANDIDATES MAY PAY THE PRICE OF ELECTION MAYHEM: TEACHERS

Teachers’ unions yesterday charged that propaganda campaigns being carried out for the three upcoming provincial council elections would be detrimental to the students sitting the GCE Advanced Level Examination next month as it would be a disturbance and inconvenience to the students.

The Ceylon Teachers’ Union said the government had been irrational in its decision to hold the Northern, North Western and Central Provincial Council elections in September subsequent to the GCE Advanced Level Examination which would be held on August 5 - 30.

In the upcoming GCE Advanced Level Examination there would be 73 examination centres in the Northern Province, 90 in the North Western Province and 251 in the Central Province.

Despite a recent announcement by Elections Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya requesting election candidates to refrain from hindering the GCE Advanced Level examination, Union General Secretary Joseph Stalin said election propaganda campaigns would invariably get in the way of conducting the examination without obstructions.

“There is no rush to hold these elections in the immediate future.

The government had been irrational in its decision to hold the Northern, North Western and Central Provincial Council elections in September

They could postpone it for later since the children sitting their GCE A/Level should be given priority,” Stalin said.

The Ceylon Teachers’ Service Union said the elections were likely to clash with the examinations as it did last year. Union Spokesman Mahinda Jayasinghe said students of schools in some areas in the Sabaragamuwa and North Central Provinces were greatly inconvenienced when protests were staged during the GCE A/Level examination.