Bandula denies responsibility for Z-score fiasco

by Dasun Edirisinghe

Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena said yesterday that there was no need for him to resign as he had not done anything wrong.

He was responding to the JVP’s and teacher trade unions’ demand for him to resign over the Z–score fiasco.

"I was the third respondent in the Z–score case and the examinations chief was the first respondent," Gunawardena said adding that the Supreme Court had cleared them without any punishment.

Gunawardena said that the Examination Department had calculated the Z–score of 2011 GCE (A/L) examination results according to a formula devised by an experts committee appointed by the University Grants Commission.

He said that the examinations department was not responsible for the Z–score fiasco.

According to the Supreme Court order, the Z–score of the old and new syllabi should be calculated separately, the minister said adding that so far the UGC had not told the examination department to carry out the re-calculation.

Gunawardena said that the examinations department conducted three major examinations, Grade Five scholarship, GCE (O/L) and GCE (A/L), every year.

"Our duty is to hold exams and evaluate papers," Minister Gunawardena said.

The UGC was authority for admitting students to universities and that was why they provided guidelines for the calculation of the Z–score’, he said.

The examination department calculated the ‘Z–score’ earlier using the formula given by the UGC, but the Court asked it to do it separately for the two syllabi, the minister said.

Now, the department was awaiting the new formula given by the Supreme Court, Gunawardena said.

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