Scholarship and A/L students facing difficulties due to school closures

Students sitting for the grade five scholarship and Advance Level (A/L) exams in 2021 are facing a tough situation, as teachers and principals are no longer working in schools and they will not be able to send their relevant applications on time.

School principals and teachers are not available to process their applications due to the ongoing protest, the Education Times learned.

A spokesperson for the Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) said education unions will not participate in the application process unless their demands for a revision of salary anomalies are met.

CTU General Secretary Joseph Stalin said there will be no applications sent from schools.

The Examination Department recently postponed its deadline for applications to September 15, citing the present lockdown as a deterrent to previous deadline announced earlier.

However despite the extension, students said they cannot meet the new deadline set by the Examination Department.

The department has announced that the grade five scholarship exams will be held on November 14 and the A/L exams will be held from November 15 to December 10.

The national exams usually scheduled for August every year were postponed due to the worsening Covid-19 situation in the country.