Meddle And Muddle Of Z- Score

The controversial Z-score has taken centre stage in the academic landscape in the country in recent times. Like a tonardo, it has hit the GCE (A/L) student community who sat the 2011 examination under two syllabi with great hope and ambition, severely, pushing them into a hapless and hopeless situation. At the moment, they are groping in the dark with the outcome of the revised Z-score.
This is a very  unfortunate state of affairs when the people in charge of education and examination play musical chairs and display a sense of irresponsibility. The meddle and muddle of the Z-score has become a festering sore following the revision, making confusion worst confounded. Who are the idiots who put the young hopefuls in dire predicament? Amidst controversy, amidst strong opposition, the two ministers S. B. Dissanayake and Bandula Gunawardene continue to remain on the saddle, maintaining they have no hand in the ugly episode. They are very happy claiming the Supreme Court did not pass any stricture on them.
This is the type of people who are in the cabinet, enjoying all the perks and holding the responsible portfolios of education. Do not their cabinet portfolio demand accountability and transparency? Whoever responsible for the fiasco should be taken to task and made to pay for the utter confusion created amongst the student community.
The parents who give their best to the children are now in the horns of a dilemma and the students between the devil and the deep blue sea. Who cares? There are instances where some students who get admission to a university now find they are shut out following the new Z-score. These young minds may have a mental breakdown to have a crippling impact on their academic life.
There are also proposals to allow the students to sit for the fourth time. Let the students who failed to make the grade under the two Z-scores do so.
But to be fair by the other candidates, it is pertinent to point out that candidates who are successful in terms of either score must be admitted to follow their selected course o study.
This is the best solution to allay the fears of the parents and their children who have undergone severe ordeals for no fault of their own.  Much water has flowed under the bridge since the ugly fiasco. Let’s hope saner counsel prevail to put to rest the restless minds.
M. Azhar Dawood
Dehiwela
Lankan Tamils, A political Football For Tamilnadu Politicians
Could you give your earnest consideration  to the following matters and respond please.

01.    Is Sri Lanka a donkey born to carry burdens – burden of poverty/poverty-stricken people of Tamilnadu/India?
02.    Is there any law or principle in the UN Human Rights Charter, International Law and in Constitutions of Nations that states or postulates that a small country like Sri Lanka should maintain, look after and give rights and powers to unwanted or rejected Tamil people of Tamilnadu?
03.    The Tamilnadu mother has failed to fulfil her maternal duties and responsibilities to the Tamil people. She has failed to give them the requisites of life such as food and water, clothing, housing, education, medicine, and ‘love and affection, thereby violating the human rights of the Tamil people. The Tamil people were forced to leave the Tamilnadu homeland and go to other countries like Sri Lanka for refuge because of the wickedness of the Tamilnadu mother. Therefore, Tamilnadu must be taken to the International Court at the Hague for impeachment and punishment for criminal negligence of the Tamil people.
04.    The Tamil people of Sri Lanka are entitled to the fundamental human right to live with the Tamilnadu mother in the Tamilnadu homeland, enjoying the love, affection and protection of the Tamilnadu mother. But it is most unfortunate that Tamil people had been deprived of this most important right by the Tamilnadu mother herself. Therefore, Tamilnadu must apologise to the Tamil people of Sri Lanka for the cruel treatment meted out to them and invite the Tamil people to come and live in Tamilnadu homeland which will contribute to family re-union and reconciliation between the Tamilnadu mother and the Tamil people expelled from Tamilnadu homeland in the past.
05.    Dr Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India recently stated that Sri Lankan Tamil people are entitled to justice, self-respect-and dignity. What about the other communities – Sinhalese, Muslims, Burghers, Veddas, etc. inhabiting Sri Lanka? Are they animals not entitled to justice, self-respect and dignity? Dr Manmohan Singh should not play to the gallery in Tamilnadu by making racist statements. We would like to inform Dr Singh that it is not Sri Lanka but the Tamilnadu mother who deprived the Tamil people of justice, self-respedt and dignity by denying them necessities of life which is a violation of human rights of the Tamil people by the Tamilnadu mother herself.
06. Sri Lanka needs,only one help from India, that is, please do not torture innocent Sri Lanka by imposing Tamilnadu’s poverty and poverty-stricken people on Sri Lanka. Take them back to India. This is common man’s cry. The people of Sri Lanka had suffered enough from Tamilnadu’s dire poverty and its horrendous consequence – terrorism – for-centuries. If India truly follows Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘Ahimsa’, it is time for India to stop causing ‘Himsa’ to Sri Lanka by using the ‘Tamil problem’ which is a creation of Tamilnadu, not Sri Lanka. The Indian Government must ask the Tamilnadu Chief Minister to give a political solution to the problems of the Tamil people, her children who were expelled from Tamilnadu in the past. Is there a political solution to the wickedness of the Tamilnadu mother to her own children?
Why should Sri Lanka look after the unwanted children of the Tamilnadu mother?
07.    Tamilnadu politicians use the Sri Lankan Tamil people for their propaganda purposes. Sri Lankan Tamil people are only a political football to be kicked by the Tamilnadu politicians whenever they want to gain their narrow-political objectives and selfish aims. Sri Lankans who love the Tamil people challenge Ms Jeyalalitha, Mr Karunanidhi and other Tamilnadu politicians to prove to the world that they cherish genuine love and affection for the Tamil people of Sri Lanka by inviting them to come and live in the Tamilnadu homeland enjoying the generosity and solicitude of the Tamilnadu mother.
08. It is a cardinal sin and a grave crime to impose India’s burdens – poverty and beggars of Tamilnadu – on small Sri Lanka. If India is a great country, she must show her greatness by carrying her own burdens. India must practise Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘Ahimsa’, not Hitlerite brutal racist expansionism to the detriment of the interest of small neighbours.
It is the bounden duty of India to protect small countries like Sri Lanka and not to harass by imposing burdens that Tamilnadu/ India cannot shoulder.
A. Sebastian,
Maravila.