Sri Lanka It's Happening

August 24, 2007

In this failed state, Getting into a school is difficult enough. Graduation is a lot more difficult. To leave school you need to sit for the GCE Advanced Level examination. One that you can easily pass if you memorize everything like a parrot but will definitely fail if you try to learn the subject matter.

Once you take the exam the answer scripts need to be corrected. This year, it's not happening because some teachers' unions are on strike. If you are a teacher, paper marking is a thankless task. You have to report to work during your vacation and mark the papers for a pittance. If you make a mistake, some poor kid loses the chance to goto university, if the error is detected you might even lose your job.

When my own A Level results were released it was not what I expected it to be, so I applied for re correction and to my great pleasure found a 'C' marked upto a 'B'. Without that, i would not have had to spend four years at the University of Colombo.