COLOMBO – Sri Lanka’s education ministry has postponed two prominent school-level examinations in the country, the General Certificate of Education (GCE) Advanced Level (A/L) exams and the Grade 5 scholarship exams, to November 2021.
Education Minister Prof G L Peiris told reporters Monday (19), the 2021 A/L examinations scheduled to be held in October have been pushed back to November due to the COVID-19 situation in the country.
The A/L exams will now take place from November 15 to December 10, he said.
The examination taken by students in their final year in school (Grades 13), determines their entry to State universities and is usually held in the month of August. However, since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the examination was deferred and the 2020 exams were also postponed to October 2020.
Meanwhile the highly competitive Grade 5 scholarship exam has been pushed to November 14, 2021.
The exam is held at the end of the primary grade (grade 5) in most state schools in the country, allowing students to transfer to “better” schools, based on a system of cutoff marks.
Sri Lanka held the GCE Ordinary Level exam for 2020 in March 2021.
It is a mandatory exam held to certify that students have completed their senior secondary school (grade 10 and 11).
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