Following the complaints received about leaking of an exam paper of the second term test held in Western province schools last month, the Western Provincial Education Department has appointed a committee to investigate the matter, Provincial Director of Education P. Srilal Nonis told the Sunday Observer yesterday.
The Provincial Director of Education has not yet received an official complaint about the incident. However, following a discussion with Colombo division Education Director, the Department has decided to investigate the matter.
“I learned that the History question paper in the second term test had been leaked out in several areas, such as Colombo, Jayewardenepura, Kelaniya and Gampaha. But we are still unaware of the way how this has happened. We are expecting the investigation report within two weeks,” he said. Ceylon’s Teachers’ Services Unions General Secretary Mahinda Jayasinghe told the Sunday Observer that as per his knowledge, the question papers had come into students hands through some social media platforms, such as ‘Viber’.
“Not only History, Science, Mathematics and IT papers have also been out before the exam. This is a serious harm to students as they cannot measure their levels. Especially, this is a huge loss for O/L students to assess themselves. The Ministry should conduct a proper investigation into this,” he said.
Amidst complaints of leakage of the history paper, the Western Province Education Department has decided to hold a separate exam for the subject of History in first weeks of the next semester.
However, Secretary to the Ministry of Education, Nihal Ranasinghe told the Sunday Observer that the Ministry has not yet received a formal complaint about the incident till Saturday (3).