The results of the external law examinations held in June last year have not been released to date much to the dismay of the external law students. The Colombo university is dead-silent on this matter.

The faculty attitude towards the law students is one of indifference. It is not without reason that we make this allegation. Look at the high failure rate in these exams. It makes no difference whether one is internal or external when it comes to the marking of answer scripts. The authorities try to justify this trend with various arguments. Just forget the external students. Take the internal students. Some years ago internal students of the faculty launched a protest, declaring their doubts about the process of answer script marking – so high was its Sinhala medium failure rate.

Accordingly, a committee of inquiry was appointed to probe this matter. The committee was headed by Professor G. D. Wijewardene. The other members were Dr. (Mrs.) Kanthie Abeynaike and Mr. C. Jayasooriya. The committee observed that in the final marks sheets submitted to the examination branch, there were several borderline scores of 38 and 39. It is the practice in other faculties to review such borderline scores before the submission of results. Such a practice if adopted will clearly contribute to reducing the failure rate." See for details ‘The Island’ dated 20-11-92. We have to say the same thing today with regard to external law exams, as well. All borderline cases should be pushed up so as to reduce the number of failures.