Grade 5 Scholarship Exam no longer compulsory

Minister of Education Akila Viraj Kariyawasam has instructed officials to cancel the circular which makes sitting for the Grade 5 Scholarship Examination compulsory for all students.

Speaking during the annual prize giving ceremony of Anula Vidyalaya in Nugegoda, the minister said that he has instructed the Secretary to the Ministry of Education to cancel the said circular.

The minister had taken the decision after considering the recommendations of the review committee appointed with regard to the restructuring of the Scholarship Examination.

The committee consists of educationists, child psychologists, pediatric specialists and other experts.

The committee convened at the Ministry of Education this morning while the initial objectives of the Scholarship Exam and its transformation into an exam that presently pressurizes children was extensively discussed.

The Scholarship examination was commenced with the intention of providing assistance to children from low-income families and to provide them with an opportunity to enter schools with adequate facilities.

However, currently it has distanced from those objectives and serves as a ‘seriously cruel’ examination with over 300,000 students looking for admittance into some 120 popular national schools, the ministry said.

Accordingly several crucial decisions regarding the Scholarship Examination are to be taken in the future while one of the decisions has been taken, based on the recommendations of the committee of experts, to cancel the circular which had been issued making the exam compulsory to all students.

In addition to the cancellation of the circular, the committee’s attention had also been drawn towards the structure of the Scholarship Exam as well as the grade at which it is held, the statement said.