The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, widening the access to higher education and recalling the State responsibility in fulfilment of the Right to Education, on June 29th, 2012, significantly declared that the application of a common formula of Z – Score for the candidates who sat for the General Certificate of Examination Advance Level [GCE A/L] under the New and Old Syllabi is a violation of Article 12(1) of the Constitution. The Supreme Court directed the University Grants Commission [UGC] to take necessary and relevant steps to calculate the Z – Scores of the candidates according to the accepted statistical norms and principles on the basis that the candidates of the New Syllabus and the Old Syllabus are two distinct populations.
The story behind this notable judgement was on the failure of the authorities to exercise due or expected diligence in the issuance of the GCE A/L 2011 results. The cost and loss of the whole story, not only has a monitory value but also it needs to be considered as the breach of trust on the entire education system.
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