President Ranil Wickremesinghe has said that while a complete elimination of the GCE O/L exam might not be feasible, it must be deliberated on how to structure them, whether it be in a different format or as a pass/fail assessment.

There is a question regarding the necessity of conducting the Ordinary Level examination if students are to complete 13 years of education. Some argue that the O/L exam is unnecessary, and we can look to countries like the United States, the most developed nation in the world, where such an examination does not exist. While completely eliminating the O/L examination may not be feasible for us, we must deliberate on how to structure them, whether it be in a different format or as a pass/fail assessment, he has said.

These remarks were made by President Ranil Wickremesinghe during his address at the national ceremony for awarding teacher appointments to National Education Diploma holders for the 2018-2022 academic year. The event took place at Temple Trees this morning (16).

President Wickremesinghe, who presided over the ceremony, awarded 1,729 teacher appointments for national schools and 626 appointments for the Western Province. Similar appointments were also made for the other eight provinces, resulting in a total of 7,342 National Education Diploma holders receiving appointments on this day.

Speaking further, the President also emphasized it is crucial to establish a program to provide English education to all and that the country’s university system needs to be modernized.