The Grade five scholarship examinations is an optional yet highly competitive examination that students in the final year of primary school (grade five) sit. The department of examinations of the ministry of education conducts this examination and results assessed under a specified cut off are taken into account when admitting students to “better” schools for upper school education. It is this factor that makes the scholarship examination a crucial milestone in the academic career of Sri Lankan students. It should be mentioned that some students do their very best in hope of achieving this goal/ dream of entering a “better” school.
A parent whose child was known to be hard worker, in other words a “smart kid” filed RTI requesting information about the child’s answer script requesting to see the marked paper or a copy of her paper as he was certain that his daughter had done better than the official result released by the department of examinations.
When requested information was denied, the child of the said parent requested the same information under RTI as a child applicant claiming that information should be granted abiding to the Children’s Rights Act.
As she was certain that there had been a mismatch in her part one and part two papers she requested to have a look at the two sets of papers to make sure that they were truly hers. She requested to verify her handwriting and wanted details of her first and second paper grade separately.
The department of examinations responded to this RTI agreeing to allow the applicant to verify her handwriting. It was stated that further clarifications could be made upon an appointment between the applicant and the named information officer.
Although the child and the parent were allowed to view the answer scripts upon which it was found out that there had been a miscalculation and a misappropriation of marking, no further action has been taken on this issue to right the wrong.
Upon an inquiry, we found out that the complaint is still under process. No satisfactory reparation of the caused injustice and inconvenience is still made by the department of examinations regarding this matter.
This update was prepared by participants of the Information and Communication Training Workshop conducted by the Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI) through a grant funded by the United States Agency for International Development through the Strengthening Democratic Governance and Accountability Project Activity.
“The contents of this post are the sole responsibility of SLPI and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.”
Recent Comments