Minister Gunawardena making a special ministerial statement said Commissioner General of Examinations had taken some actions using the powers provided to the latter by the provisions in the Examinations Act and the objective of those actions was for the benefit of all candidates sitting for the public examinations.

Imparting knowledge in the process of education the government could not permit the creeping in of private agendas but have to give priority to ensure a bright future for thousands of school children, the minister said.

The minister said that the Commissioner General of Examinations had recently removed several persons from a board of experts preparing question papers for the GCE Advanced Level Examination. One such removal was a senior lecturer by the name Jagath Bandara, who had retired some ten years ago and was residing in Canada. The minister questioned what was wrong in the decision to remove a person who had retired from teaching profession a decade back.  

Another person by the name Danny Athapattu had been removed as he had been accused of preparing books on probable questions and possible answers and holding examination seminars for the Advanced Level candidates. He had been removed from the panel following an investigation. All these removals had been done by the Commissioner General of Examinations using the powers vested on him, the minister said.

Minister Gunawardena said that he was prompted to make the statement by some recent media reports that alleged he had meddled with the process of preparing question papers meant for the GCE Advanced Level Examination. “If anyone could prove this allegation true, I am ready to apologize to this House the very following day,” the minister added.

Special Reporter