The Ceylon Teachers' Union (CTU) stated that the Ministry of Education should take steps to maintain the activities of schools that have undergone changes for various reasons in the past few years as normal, and to conduct the examinations within the relevant period.

Given the Easter Sunday terror attacks of 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the prevailing economic crisis, the activities of schools underwent various changes over the past few years.

Speaking to The Daily Morning regarding their impact, the President of the CTU, Priyantha Fernando said that the time has now come for the relevant authorities, mainly the Ministry, to prepare a programme to maintain schools and hold examinations including the General Certificate of Education (GCE) Advanced Level (A/L) and Ordinary Level (O/L) and Grade Five Scholarship in the usual months, which are August and December of each year. "There is no issue with regard to covering the syllabi now. Therefore, the Ministry should prepare the school timetables as usual from next year (2024). If it is not done and examinations are held in the current manner (all the examinations are currently held with delays of over five months), it will affect the students' life in various ways. In the present situation, there is no reason for the changes that were made to school operations and the holding of examinations to continue," he said. Speaking further, Fernando said that the delays in holding examinations have also led to certain administrative issues in schools. "When the examinations are not held on time, the students who are scheduled to sit for them attend schools for a longer time. Then, there are issues in allocating classrooms and other facilities for other students. This situation is being managed to some extent by principals, but it cannot be continued. That is why the authorities should formulate a mechanism to get the education sector back to normal," he explained.

Meanwhile, commenting on the postponement of the O/L Examination by two weeks, he said that the said decision reflects nothing but the inability of the Department of Examinations and the Ministry. "There was no reason for the O/L Examination to be postponed. The authorities have not assigned a reason for the decision either. This Examination should have been held in December 2022. There is a delay of months now, so postponing it again by two weeks is a serious injustice to the students," added Fernando.

The country's education sector is seeing a setback due to several reasons such as the Easter Sunday terror attacks of 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic situation, and the prevailing economic crisis. For all these reasons, schools Island-wide were closed and examinations including the A/L, the O/L and Grade Five Scholarship were postponed on several occasions since 2019. Meanwhile, the O/L Examination pertaining to last year (2022), which was scheduled to commence on 15 May, was postponed by two weeks. The Examination will be held from 29 May to 8 June 2023.