Education Minister Dr. Susil Premajayantha yesterday said that the evaluation of GCE Advanced Level answer scripts has reached the final stage and immediately after it is over, the Ordinary Level answer sheet evaluation will begin promptly.
Speaking in Parliament Minister Premajayantha said the Advanced Level Examination for 2023 will be held before the end of this year while the Ordinary Level Examination which was scheduled to be held in December has been scheduled to be held in the first quarter of 2024.
“The Advanced Level Examination for 2023 will also be held before the end of this year.It has been planned to conduct the Ordinary Level examination to be held in December this year, in the first quarter of the year 2024,” he added.
The minister further said that the Examinations Department will carry out the organizational activities of examinations as scheduled and all provincial and zonal offices will be informed to stop giving information of examination candidates including AL and OL candidates to external parties.
Provincial and Zonal education officials have been advised not to give details of candidates of any examination to external parties under any reason. The minister said vocational training programmes for students can be done independently within the school system by the Education Ministry together with the institutions under the Education Ministry without the intervention of any other external party.
Dr.Premjayantha told Parliament that necessary measures have been taken to control the drug menace in schools.A special programme is being implemented for this purpose involving Provincial Education Authorities, Regional offices, security forces, and parents. Nevertheless, the Minister said that immediate intervention will be made if anyone informs about an incident related to drugs in schools.
Education Minister said this while answering a question raised by the Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa.An active law that brought drug control to our country is the Narcotics Act of 1983. After some time, this Act was amended in this Parliament itself, two months ago. However, under the existing Act, there was no possibility of prosecuting things like ice. The jurisdiction of prosecution is assigned as per the schedule of the Act. Depending on the weight of any narcotic, the court of the case will change.
According to the Ayurvedic system, doctors have a permissible amount of cannabis. This time, we presented the amendments in such a way that by including a large number of drugs. The Act is now in force and necessary arrangements are being made under Act.
Dharma Sri Abeyratne and Irangika Range
