FR petition against releasing 2024 Grade 05 Scholarship exam results

A Fundamental Rights (FR) petition has been filed with the Supreme Court seeking an order preventing the release of 2024 Grade 05 Scholarship Examination results and the cut-off marks.

The petitions were filed by the parents of several students who appeared for the 2024 Grade 05 Scholarship Examination which was held on September 15, 2024.

The petitioners have requested the Supreme Court through their FR petition that an order be issued invalidating the question paper 01 of the 2024 Grade 05 Scholarship Examination in which certain questions are alleged to have been leaked, and that the exam be held again.

Furthermore, the petition seeks an order be issued to the relevant authorities to re-conduct the question paper 02 of the examination as well, if it is uncovered during investigations that the relevant question paper has also been leaked.

The petitioners also request the court to invalidate the decision taken by the Department of Examination to award free marks to all candidates who appeared for the exam for the three questions which are alleged to have been leaked.

Additionally, they seek an order be issued to the respondents of the petition to submit to the court a list of names of the members of the committee appointed to investigate the alleged paper leak.

The Commissioner General of Examinations, Minister of Education and Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, Secretary of the Ministry of Education, DIG in charge of the Criminal Investigations Department and 11 others have been named as respondents of the relevant petition. 

On September 20, an investigation was launched by the Department of Examinations after it was alleged that three questions of one of the question papers from the exam had been leaked. Later, the initial investigation report was handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which also launched a separate investigation into the matter.

Meanwhile, the paper marking process of the Grade 5 Scholarship Examination, which was held on September 15, had been temporarily suspended, pending the investigation.

The investigations had uncovered that only three questions from the exam had been leaked in advance. However, the incident stirred controversy as a group of parents, holding press conferences and staging protests on several occasions, had claimed that the entire question paper had been leaked.

Against this backdrop, the Director of the Planning Division of the National Institute of Education (NIE) in Maharagama and a school teacher, who were arrested by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) over the question paper issue, were remanded until October 22.

The arrested 58-year-old NIE Director was a member of the committee which prepared the 2024 Grade 05 Scholarship Examination paper, and the 49-year-old teacher had been conducting tuition classes for Grade 05 students.

The parents raised the issue with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, and as a result, the evaluation of the answer sheets for the scholarship examination was suspended until the investigation was completed.
However on Monday (14), the Commissioner General of Examinations Amith Jayasundara announced that it was decided not to re-conduct the 2024 Grade 05 Scholarship Examination.

Furthermore, it has been decided to award free marks to all students for the 03 questions which were alleged to have been leaked.

Meanwhile, the evaluation of answer sheets, which had been temporarily suspended, is reportedly expected to commence immediately.