Expert committee report a whitewash, say unions

Even though the intensity of the protests against the irregularities in the marking system of the Advanced Level Examination answer scripts has subsided, the release of the expert committee report on the matter has not appeased trade unions which say that its recommendations offer no solution to students affected by the problem.

The Joint Trade Union Alliance said it rejects the recommendations presented by the Committee appointed by the President to probe issues.joint Trade Union Alliance convener Kesara Kottegoda said it is not possible to get a truthful report from a committee which consists only of Government appointed members.

“The members of the committee may think more about the future of their professional careers before giving their opinion. Even though the committee said that the main issue was a computer error, there was no expert in the committee with knowledge of computing, he further said.

Mr. Kottegoda claims that the Committee has only confirmed the observations which they have collected from the examination officials who are actually responsible for the results fiasco. He said many academics including the Professor who introduced the ‘Z” score system to Sri Lanka has expressed his views saying the method which was used to combine the two sets of results is a failure.

The Joint Trade Union Alliance will be having public awareness campaigns on this issue in all districts which starts from Anuradhapura next week. The Alliance is committed to go ahead with the protest campaign until the Government takes a decision to review the results.