A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
(Full Story)
Search This Blog
Back to 500BC.
==========================
Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Friday, April 28, 2017
University Admission Process Needs Urgent Review: A Proposal
By R.P. Gunawardane –April 26, 2017
Undoubtedly, higher education is the only path to upward mobility for
most of our youth. Thus, university admission is extremely competitive
in Sri Lanka and as such it remains a very sensitive national issue for
many decades. Only about10% of those who sit GCE A/L are admitted to 14
state universities leaving out almost 90%. The fraction of students who
are fortunate enough to receive free university education comes to about
17% of those who qualify for university admissions, leaving out 83%.
This means that a very large number of deserving students are denied
admission to our universities every year. As a result, many students are
seeking admission to foreign universities particularly because
alternative avenues are not available in most disciplines. They are also
our citizens, who have been denied free university education. Thus,
they also deserve opportunities and at least the freedom of choice for
university education in our democracy.
Since
the university admission is extremely competitive, it is essential to
formulate a very fair, reasonable and a foolproof system for university
admissions. This article deals with the deficiencies of the current
university admission process, which includes both the admission policy
and the admission procedure, and some specific suggestions for its
improvement.
History and the present status
Prior
to 1970’s university admission was purely based on merit as practiced
all over the world. After the failure of a short-lived ethnicity based
admission, a district quota system with a smaller all island merit
component was introduced in 1972 for university admissions. Since then
this policy remained almost unchanged except for minor adjustments to
the different quotas.
There
were some additional changes took place during the period 2000-2002.
From the year 2000, all students applying to universities were required
to take 3 subjects instead of 4 subjects at the GCE A/L. This change was
combined with introduction of an additional Common General Test for
university admission. It was expected that this test is an aptitude test
like SAT in USA, but it was far from it. Furthermore, it is only a
qualifying test and the pass mark is 30%, making this test very
ineffective in the selection process. The other more significant change
introduced in the year 2002 was to rank students for admission on the
basis of a standardized mark, the Z-score instead of aggregate raw
marks. This method is considered as an effective method of removing
inconsistencies arising out of the level of difficulty in scoring marks
in different subjects.
Currently,
the district quota system is applicable to all streams (Commerce,
Biological Science, Physical science and Technology streams) other than
the Arts stream where all island merit based admission operates. Even in
the Arts stream some categories such as music, dance, drama and
theatre, visual arts etc. are excluded. For these disciplines district
quota system operates. In the present district quota system, 40% of the
available places are filled on all island merit basis while 55% of the
places in each course of study are allocated to the students from 25
districts in proportion to the population ratio. In addition, a 5% of
the places in each course of study are allocated to the students from16
educationally disadvantaged districts. The distinct feature here is that
it gives more weightage to the admission based on district quotas
rather than island wide merit. This has affected a large number of
students from urban areas who have performed better at the GCE A/L exam
while at the same time a group of students from the ‘educationally
underprivileged districts’ has benefitted from this scheme over a period
of several decades.
Defects in the system and need for change
Current
40-60 quota system has been in operation continuously for about 4
decades. No serious attempts have been made to improve facilities in the
schools in educationally disadvantaged districts during this period.
High weightage (60%) given to district quota in a highly competitive
university admission process appears to be excessive and unfair. The
quota system has many defects, and it has been extensively and openly
abused by many students/ parents. The policy is based on the assumption
that educational facilities are not uniform throughout the island to
adopt the island wide merit scheme. It also assumes that all schools in
the same district are equivalent and have equal educational facilities.
However, it is important to note that the discrepancy in the facilities
is visible even more within a given district. Each district, whether it
is Colombo, Matara, Anuradhapura, Ratnapura or Jaffna, has well equipped
good schools as well as poorly equipped bad schools. Therefore, it is
hard to justify the basis of this scheme.
Since
there is disparity in the educational facilities within a district, it
would be more appropriate to use a quota system based on school groups
rather than districts. In such a scheme, number of places allocated will
be determined in proportion to the number of students sitting the A/L
exam.
However,
in the district quota system, admission numbers are determined in
proportion to the total population. Former method is more appropriate
for the allocation of places for university admission.
It
is disheartening to note that 16 out of 25 districts (64%) in Sri Lanka
are declared as educationally disadvantaged areas. These 16 districts
are Nuwara Eliya, Hambantota, Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mannar, Mulllativu,
Vavuniya, Trincomalee, Batticoloa, Ampara, Puttalam, Anuradhapura,
Polonnaruwa, Badulla, Monaragala and Ratnapura. Similarly, out of 9
provinces four entire provinces (Northern, Eastern, North Central and
Uva) have been declared as educationally disadvantaged. If one considers
the whole provinces only the Western province is educationally
advantaged. This classification needs reexamination. If this is the
reality after 70 years of achieving independence from British rule,
there should be something seriously wrong with our national policy.