The Ministry of Education reversed its decision and will now permit members of the Past Pupils Associations of government schools to sit in as panelists for all categories of interviews that is scheduled to take place for the intake of year one admissions for year 2017.
Education Minister – Akila Viraj Kariyawasam
A circular issued earlier by the Education Ministry bearing number 17/2016 on the 16th of June 2016, prohibited members of the Past Pupils Associations from sitting in as panelists for interviews, especially where children were to be interviewed for categories such as is Chief Occupant’s Category, Brother’s Category, Transfer Category, Education Category and International Category.
However that issued circular permitted the Past Pupils Association members to sit in only as interview panelists for the category where the “Past Pupils’ children” were being interviewed.
Despite Colombo Telegraph carrying this story exclusively on the 3rd of July 2016, the reversal of this change was reported by many of the Colombo print media as of yesterday. However the amendment to the Education Ministry’s circular pertaining to this reversal is yet to be officially seen, even on their website. (Janaka Ranaweera © Colombo Telegraph)
thrishu / July 6, 2016
What kind of morons as ministers impose “shooting from the hip” type strategic policies. One moment they impose a policy decision without proper consultation, and the next moment they withdraw it. That in itself is evidence that the initial policy imposition was flawed. Haven’t these ministers and their deputies ever heard of the art and techniques of change management. They want to rub shoulders with developed countries in all spheres, yet they are a long way in the drag curve when it comes to methodology and governance. In between the gap is filled with pretenses, bragging and either squandering tax payers money or corruption.
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Daham / July 6, 2016
The minister has no back bone and no balls either. It seems from his actions that the minister in charge of education is neither a woman or a man.
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Buster / July 6, 2016
This Kariwasam bloke must surely be as stupid as he looks!
And it speaks volumes for the quality of Yahapalanaya choices of ministers!!
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srinath.gunaratne / July 6, 2016
Could not agree more,
The right hand delivers, left hand cancels, It is is the norm of this govt!
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Plato. / July 6, 2016
Left Right Left Right Left Right About Turn!
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sr / July 6, 2016
Happy news first; to keep past pupils away from panels
Now reverted, sad news because it’s a license for corruption and mal practices.
Majority of past pupils maintain connections with school are culprits.
Make it that school belongs to you only during your stay there as a student.
Make it clear that past pupils have no role to play in school development.
Make it that only parents have participation in school development.
Ministry, don’t be a slave to their contributions and have guts to keep them away in student selection.
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ELDORADO / July 6, 2016
Better to rescind your decision immediately than wait for a calamitic uproar and then be forced to retract. It is the best thing that can happen as the original decision was extremely faulty and had hidden agendas by unscrupulous officials.
Take this as a lesson not to make hasty decisions in the future like they say7 “ACT IN HASTE AND REPENT IN LEISURE “
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Yoosuf Ali / July 6, 2016
Agree fully with “ELDORADO’s” and “thrush’s” comments. This was the best Mr. Minister could have done, having done the initial blunder, being mislead by the unscrupulous bureaucrats.
Mr or Mrs “sr”, seems to be from another planet!!, He/she doesn’t seem to understand the concept of ‘Alumni’ which is an universal Phenomena. Alternatively he/she could be a senseless robot who is in its’ nonsensical elements, roaming far from ground reality. The only other absurd assumption would be to think “sr” has reached university straight from pre-school, skipping secondary education in SL !!!!
‘sr’ doesn’t seem to understand that if the PP’s in any state school, are corrupt, it has to occur with the concurrence, connivance and the knowledge of the respective Principal, coz its the Principal that finally decides whether to admit a child or not!!!. If that truly is the case, then such PP’s + Principals, should be dealt with according to the law of the land. Instead, a totally counter-productive, damaging and a costly change of circular will not solve the problem of ‘sr’s corruption.
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sr / July 6, 2016
Yoosuf Ali
You mentioned principal + PP
The question is why can’t principal do that with the relevant officials from the ministry and staff members.
Why can’t principal alone do it according to the law of the country?
Do you mean to say that there’s a provision in the law for PPs to join principal to make selections for grade one?
May be I’m from another planet but there’re many to know the exact function of PPs in selection process.
If the principal requests help from PPs what sort of helps they may be?
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colin / July 6, 2016
Well done Mr.Minister you did well to reverse the decision. Yes people make mistakes and then realise its a wrong move so they rescind their action/ The great thing about it is that you dont hold onto your views stubbornly and insist that it be carried out like some politicians do to salvage their prestige when they realise their move was wrong’
Thanks to your action now the students are bound to benefit by the contributions that the OBA/OGA will make to the school.
Once again well done Sir
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Zaru / July 6, 2016
A country without a consistant policy never moves…. same policy blunder in placing newly recruited SLPS officers. put some private sector ceo into education ministry if you expect some change
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Raj / July 6, 2016
If I am not mistaken, the majority of Ministers have only basic academic qualifications & in some case, judging by their actions & speech, not even that. Those who are academically qualified, sadly, have no professional integrity. Maybe its time the PM cracks the whip & drive into their thick skulls that strategic & policy decisions of Ministries should be discussed & approved, at least, with him before being implemented & then reversed in haste after a public outcry. It’s a poor reflection of the Govt. ability to govern & these yobs cannot be trusted with matters of state that effects the lives of average people. In fact, the PM should hold classes to educate the yobs how Parliament & matters of state are conducted in developed countries because in SL, Ministers seem to act as they please on impulse or on a whim.
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Kadalay / July 7, 2016
Anyway these OBA guys are also racketeers. For some of them these Grade 1 admissions is also their bread and butter. Whilst portraying to be helping the school they are also playing the game well with the Principal. I was told that some Mudalali’s pay even up to millions to have their kids enrolled in these Buddhist Colleges especially in Colombo. So Yoosuf Ali, I am sure you are also one of these old boy blokes who want to be in control of your college’s grade one intake. That’s fine my friend. No heart feelings here. But one thing I cannot understand is why certain old boys have to be always involved in everything that their school does. Leave alone these admissions. It is such a messy achcharu as at times they think they are more powerful than their principal.
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sr / July 8, 2016
Well said Kadaly
Such happenings especially in Buddhist schools are ridiculous because they are anti-Buddhist.
It’s not to embrace that Buddha preached.
Past pupils should know that the school you studied isn’t your property.
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justice / July 7, 2016
The problem seems to be that there are not enough schools for all children to begin their schooling from Grade 1.
Hence the fierce competition.
Could this be rectified.
In the old days, there were “attendance officers” at each district education office, who visited homes of pupils who absented for more than three days to find out why, and caution the parents if the absence was without any cause.
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Upul / July 7, 2016
Does this idiot of a Minister know which side of his brain functions on any given hour?
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Yoosuf Ali / July 7, 2016
‘dear sr’
With your second comment, my initial assumption of you not being privy to realities, has been proven correct.
Let me put it this way:
1. Read both circulars first (old one and the new one which are downloadable from the ministry of education website)
2. Properly understand the grade 1 admission process to state schools
3. Read both articles that appeared on CT afterwards.
What has happened will be clearer to you thereafter.
Simply, Past Pupils have absolutely no authority in determining admissions of children to grade 1 in state schools. Their representative was merely 1 of the 5 panelists in the interview panel. Chairman of the panel by circular is the Principal. FYI, the balance 4 are all appointed by the respective Principal and it was the PP’s rep that was the only independent person sitting in the panel, that the Principal did not have a say in appointing. With the initial change of circular ministry removed that representative from the panel, which meant the entire panel was to be consisting of internal (within the school) panelists appointed by the principal. The issue was why remove independent oversight when there was no valid reason. Now it’s reversed and the previous status-quo has been established. So what’s the big deal???
I now realize that you had absolutely no clue of the process. What I wrote was in response to your initial comment that this reversal of the change by the ministry was allowing ‘corruption and malpractice’. Hope you’d understand the admission process by now. Therefore, If what you state is correct, and there really are PP’s who are corrupt, they cannot do so without conniving with the respective Principal. That’s why I said, if that’s the case, deal with that situation according to the law of the land.
Besides all that, you also may not be aware that majority of those present ministry officials are past Principals who have been transferred back to the admin pool at the ministry, upon inquiries into various malpractices and misdoings by themselves during their tenure as a Principal.
Took the time to explain this so that people like you do not form wrong opinions, without proper knowledge of what’s going on.
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yapa / July 7, 2016
This is not a priority, please see that issues such as Thewarapperuma episodes do not occur in child admissions
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