The Education Ministry plans to implement significant changes in the education system starting next year, with the aim of simplifying the Grade 5 Scholarship Examination. Education Minister Susil Premajayantha announced that the focus will be on assessing students’ literacy and numeracy skills. During a ceremony at the Ministry, where the top-performing students in the Grade 5 scholarship examination of 2023 and the students who took the 2022 Ordinary Level Examination were being evaluated, the Minister emphasized that future evaluations will not solely rely on achieving perfect scores. Instead, students will be assessed based on a combination of their performance in the scholarship exam, as well as evaluations conducted in the classroom during Grades 4 and 5. The Minister stressed the importance of consistent attendance for students to be eligible for this evaluation method. Addressing concerns about potential bias from teachers, the Minister assured that measures will be in place to prevent such situations and emphasized the need for trust between teachers, parents, and students. The Minister also highlighted that in Finland, a country renowned for its education system, classroom-level assessments are conducted until Grade 9, with exams being introduced only from Grade 9 onwards. To ensure effective monitoring and evaluation, school development boards will be responsible for overseeing students’ progress in the classroom.
