O/L Candidates of 4 Anuradhapura schools failed in the last 3 years: CTU

About 100 students from four schools in Anuradhapura have failed the GCE Ordinary Level (O/L) exam for the past three years, the Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) revealed.

CTU President, Priyantha Fernando said all O/ L candidates from Oyamaduwa Maha Kashyapa Vidya l aya , Wanahalamba Vi d y a l a y a , T h a m b i y awa Dharmapala Vidyalaya and Athdathkalla Rahula Vidyalaya had failed.

He said that most schools had internal issues such as unqualified teachers and principals sans the required grades. He claimed that senior teachers were not available as they had been transferred owing to disputes with principals.

Mr Fernando claimed that 40% of principal appointments in northern and north central areas are through political influence.

He said that Oyamudawa Kashyapa Vidyalaya whose O/L students failed their exams from 2012 to 2014, had only 1 Science teacher, 1 English teacher and 1 Arts teacher. However, in 2014, the Science teacher who was also the Maths teacher, was transferred.

He said that, despite there being many vacancies in schools, teachers are being transferred due to disagreements between them and the principal.

CTU General Secretary, Joseph Stalin said they had inquired only from four schools, but suspect there are more schools with bad results.

He said they had requested the Education Director of Anuradhapura Zone for action, but to no avail for three years.

Education Ministry Secretary Upali Marasinghe said the ministry gets analyses on O/L failures from the Exams Dept, including names and places of the schools performing poorly.

“It is possible that some schools have problems, but to resolve these issues investigations must be conducted among the students, teachers and principals,” he said.

He said the Dept needs time to look into the matter and resolve it.

Examination Commissioner W. M. N. J. Pushapakumara denied that O/ L results of Anuradapura schools were going down in the past three years, but do not have the statistics of 2014 O/L results.

But, trade union officials claimed they had accurate information pertaining to these schools in Anuradhapura.