One hundred and ninety two thousand two hundred and seventy four (192,274) students who sat for the GCE Ordinary Level Examination are eligible to progress to the Advanced Levels.

The Ministry of Education says that 184,317 of those candidates who successfully passed the Ordinary Level Examinations were school candidates. 474,483 private and school candidates sat for the 2013 GCE Ordinary Level examination. 5,790 candidates received “A” passes in all nine subjects.

According to statistics published by the Ministry of Education today, 10,360 candidates failed all subjects. 9,787 of them were school candidates.

The Moneragala District has the highest fail rate among school students. 6.16 percent of students who sat for the 2013 GCE Ordinary Level Examination from the District have failed all subjects.

Subject-wise, the highest number of fail grades among school students was for the English Language Examination.52.14 percent of school candidates who sat for the examination have failed the English Language Examination. 42.77 percent of school candidates have failed mathematics while 32.47 percent have failed Science and Technology.

At a media briefing convened on Friday, the Ministry of Education said that there has been some progress last year, in comparison with previous years.

Minister of Education, Bandula Gunawardane said:  “Twelve years after the examination was initiated in 1977, that is in 1994, the pass rate was 22.51 percent. By 2013, the pass rate of the O/Levels has been increased to 67 percent as a whole. Through value additions to education, we hope to increase the O/Level pass rate to 75 percent by 2016. We will attempt to do this through training and changes to the process of learning and teaching.”

The Ministry of Education says that in the period from 2006 to the present, there has been an increase in the pass rate of school candidates at the Ordinary Level Examination.

The Ministry says that the percentage of candidates who have failed all subjects has declined gradually in the same time-frame.

Minister Bandula Gunawardane explained; “The Department of Examinations has compiled separate registries with regard to schools. In order to reduce the percentage of students who failed all subjects, we will initiate a special programme in these schools to increase the value of education after informing the provincial ministries in the respective provinces. Our target is to reduce the percentage of students who fail all subjects to 1 or 2 percent by 2016.

The Minister also revealed at this media briefing that the technology stream has gained popularity among students progressing to the Advanced Levels.

Minister of Education, Bandula Gunawardena said: “The technology stream was introduced for the first time in our history, in 250 schools for 13,000 students. Following these results a large number of students will opt for the technology stream.”

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