Education Ministry Secretary Prof. Kapila Perera said that the Cabinet has approved to change the education system, which keeps schoolchildren away from education for about nine months and to change the duration of the O/L and A/L Exams.
He was addressing a special media briefing in Colombo yesterday.
According to the education examination schedule, the A/L Exam is held in August and the O/L in December.
He said that this results in students staying away from education for about nine months from the day they sit for the O/L Exam to enter the A/L classes and if they pass the A/L Exam to enter University.
He explained that this change was very suitable to fill the vacuum easily.
“The O/L Exam is held in December and the results are released in March. But children cannot be admitted to school because there are A/L students. After the exam of those children is held in August, the children who have passed the O/L will be able to be admitted to the school. Similarly, the results of a child sitting for the A/L Exam will be released in April.
It will take another four to five months for the results to be re-corrected and to apply for university after that. It also takes time to determine districts. If the O/L Exam is held in August, children can sit for the A/L classes in January next year.
If the A/L Exam is held in December, those children will not come to school. A system is being set up to obtain information from the Election Commission and the Department of Registration of Persons to facilitate the determination of districts. Only 0.1 per cent of the applicants get a positive result from the re-survey and enter the university,” he said.