Sri Lanka Cabinet has decided not to Cancel or scrap the Grade 5 Scholarship Examination.
Earlier Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena said the present format of the Grade-5 Scholarship Examination would be changed in 2016.
The government says the grade five scholarship examinations will not cancelled. However, a discussion is being held to minimize the pressure caused to the children due to the examination. It is the policy of the government to continue grade five scholarship examination system.
Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said although the matter was thoroughly discussed in media no proposal has been made to cancel the examination. He also pointed out that the entire child population of the country will reap the benefits of the education development programme carried out by the government according to the Mahinda Chinthana.
Earlier Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena said unlike today, from 2016 this examination would no longer be a competitive examination. An aptitude test will be introduced just to measure the level of knowledge of the students. Aim of this move is to prevent the students being subjected to unnecessary pressure due to the excessive competitiveness of the current format of the examination. At a press briefing held today the Minster said thousand Mahindodaya secondary schools with all facilities are being set up islandwide at present. In addition nine Mahinda Rajapaksa model schools will be set up in each province. The President has allocated a sum of 25 billion rupees for this purpose. The Ministry of Education has planned to complete this programme by 2016. Accordingly, the high demand for popular schools will be eased. The Minister further said that a recorded number of scholarship students have been given the opportunity to enter the new schools in the history. In 2009 23,673 students had this opportunity. This year the number has increased up to 30,046.