Plans to simplify the Grade 5 scholarship exam in future
Posted on December 13th, 2023
Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Colombo, Dec. 13 (Daily Mirror) – The Education Ministry is expected to make the Grade 5 Scholarship Examination simpler by making several major changes in the existing education system starting next year. It has also been decided to grant the priority to measure the students’ literacy and numeracy skills, Education Minister Susil Premajayantha said.
While participating in a ceremony at the Ministry for the evaluation of the students who have obtained the highest marks in the Grade 5 scholarship examination held in 2023 and the students who sat for the 2022 Ordinary Level Examination, the Minister said that in the future, students will not be evaluated based on their obtaining 100% marks in the exams.
“Students should get 30% of the marks obtained in the Grade 5 scholarship exam as well as 30% of the marks obtained in the evaluations conducted in the classroom in Grades 4 and 5, and for this, the continuous attendance of the students should be maintained,” the Minister said.
The Minister also said some parents may criticize that the teachers will be biased, but there is no room for such situations, and above all, it is important to build better trust among the teachers, the parents and the students.
School development boards should monitor and evaluate the students in classrooms.
Minister Premajayantha said that even in Finland, which is recognized as a country with the best education, only classroom-level assessments are carried out in schools until Grade 9 and that students are evaluated through exams only from Grade 9.