President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has instructed the suspension of the evaluation of the Grade 5 Scholarship exam answer scripts for two weeks following complaints from parents about the potential leak of more questions.
Government spokesperson Vijitha Herath said that a group of parents who met with the President claimed that eight questions from the exam had been leaked, not just three as initially reported.
The President has asked the parents to provide evidence of the leak, and until further investigation, the evaluation process will remain suspended, he said.
Minister Vijitha Herath confirmed the suspension and reiterated that the authorities are taking the allegations seriously.
Addressing the media today, Minister Vijitha Herath said that investigations by the Police and Education Ministry had confirmed the leak of three questions and that based on this, the Expert Committee appointed to look into the matter decided to award full marks for the leaked questions.
As parents have claimed more questions have been leaked, Herath said discussions in this regard were held with the participation of the President and the Prime Minister, who is also the Education Minister.
Minister Herath said as an initial step, a decision was taken to temporarily suspend paper marking and that further measures would be taken once evidence was provided by the parents proving that more questions had been leaked. (Newswire)
