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by Gamini Warushamana

Intellectuals for Human Rights (IHR) have urged the government to appoint an Independent Commission to investigate and correct the injustice faced by thousands of students who sat the GCE (A/L) examination last year. The rights of thousands of students had been violated due to the technical error which occurred in the marking of the chemistry answer papers of the examination, General Secretary of the IHR Prof. Rahula Athalage told the Sunday Observer.

Since the Commissioner of Examinations has accepted the error, the government has the responsibility of correcting the injustice, he said. Though it is a technical error it occurred in the administration process of a government department and it would affect the students who enter into higher education, which is very rare and competitive in the present context of education in the country Prof. Athalage said.

Prof. Athalage said that there was a violation of human rights enshrined the Constitution. The error violates right to equality according to Article 12, Chapter III of the Constitution which says "all persons are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection of the law". Here it has been differently treated for two groups of students who sat the same examination, he said.

He said the IHR stressed that there were three main issues that the government should address in a transparent manner. Firstly, the government should ensure the university admits all students that qualify after re-correction of answer papers along the subject streams that they are entitled to.

Secondly, the government should seriously consider the issue of the students who were selected for universities for any subject streams based on incorrect results due to technical error.

IHR points out that if there is any change in the first selection after the re-correction, the mental situation of the students should be considered seriously.If the changes of the marks are low the first selection should not be altered, Prof. Athalage said.

Thirdly, many issues have arisen after the examination results incident. How did this technical error affect the aggregate marks of other subjects and how long has the error prevailed and affected the examination results in previous years are the questions that authorities should clarify.

IHR said that if it had affected the examination results in previous years the government should take action to correct this injustice faced by students irrespective of the difficulty and complexity of the process because it violates students' right to follow higher education.

Prof. Athalage said that the government should clarify this matter as people are not satisfied with the answers given by the Education Department authorities.

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