The Ministry of Education stated that all possible options are being explored to address the issues surrounding the Grade Five Scholarship Examination, and that the Supreme Court (SC) will be informed of such in the coming days.

Considering a Fundamental Rights (FR) petition filed by a group of parents of students who appeared for the Examination this year, the SC recently issued an interim order suspending the release of its results. The SC had also directed the Attorney General (AG) to discuss with the relevant authorities the possibility of re-conducting the Examination. 

The Additional Solicitor General who appeared in the SC on behalf of the AG had been directed to report back to the SC before 2 December about the possibility of re-conducting the Examination.

The Daily Morning inquired the Education Ministry Secretary Nalaka Kaluwewa as to whether there is any plan from the ministry's end to resolve the issue, and the possibility of re-holding it, to which he replied: “We will be making the relevant submissions to the SC. We are currently studying all possibilities. The SC will be informed of them.”

The Scholarship Exam was held on 15 September at 2,849 Examination centres islandwide. A total of 323,879 students appeared for the Examination of which the results were expected to be released in about 40 days. Immediately after the Examination, it was reported that the related question paper had been shared on social media platforms in the form of a model question paper by a tutor in the Alawwa area.

The Department of Examinations and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) then commenced investigations into the incident, and several suspects including a Planning Director of the National Institute of Education were recently arrested by the CID, and subsequently placed in remand custody. It was against this backdrop that a group of parents resorted to filing a FR petition before the SC, claiming that their children were subjected to injustice due to the incident.