Did Sinhala Medium students get unfairly treated at the Open Uni LLB entrance exam? - Numbers.lk
Bias against certain groups of students in open competitive exams in Sri Lanka is a long-standing issue. Historically the selection test for the LLB Degree Programme of the Open University of Sri Lanka is one such exam. When the marks were released for the 2021 selection test there was a massive outcry from the students about favoritism, bias, and irregularities in the exam.
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21 August, 2022 | 18:21 p.m.
Numbers.lk Team
Bias against certain groups of students in open competitive exams in Sri Lanka is a long-standing issue. Historically the selection test for the LLB Degree Programme of the Open University of Sri Lanka is one such exam. When the marks were released for the 2021 selection test there was a massive outcry from the students about favoritism, bias, and irregularities in the exam.
### The Exam
Open university LLB degree programme is one of the rare opportunities to Study law without spending thousands of rupees on private institutions. To become eligible for the degree programme, candidates must face a selection test and get the highest marks. Being an open exam with no age limits with weekend lectures attracts many candidates from many different fields & disciplines for this degree programme. Therefore over the years, this exam has become one of the most competitive exams in Sri Lanka.
The open Selection test for the LLB Degree Programme of the Open University of Sri Lanka consists of 3 papers.
1. IQ (100 marks)
2. English Language (100 marks)
3. Comprehension (100 marks)
A candidate can choose English, Sinhala or Tamil to be their medium to sit for the exam for the IQ paper. However, the candidates should face the Comprehension paper in either Sinhala or Tamil medium.
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2021 Exam & The released results
More than 17500+ students applied for the 2021 exam & 6311+ have sat for all three subjects. According to the result release 789 candidates who scored 180 or more in total, have been selected for the degree program.
The exam department have to hold the English Language paper for the second time due to the initial paper was similar to a certain paper issued by a private institute.
Of the students who sat for the exam, Overall English Medium students performed the best out of all candidates. 18.56% of Total students who sat for the IQ paper in English medium have able to get selected for the degree program. Sihala medium students have the lowest selection percentage It’s 5.09% and the Tamil students have a selection presentation of 10.31% more than twice the Sinhala Students.
Please note that These English medium students also faced their comprehension paper in either Sinhala or Tamil medium.
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The majority of the applicants were Sinhala medium applicants Tamil medium was the 2nd most popular medium.
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### Bias & Favouritism towards the Tamil Medium Candidates
The major pushback against the exam marks was about the difference in Comprehension paper marks between the Tamil medium and the Sinhala Medium.
The analysis of the marks revealed that in fact, the Tamil Medium students had a better chance of getting selected for the degree than Sinhala Medium students due to the unfair advantage they had with the Tamil medium comprehension paper.
Sinhala and Tamil medium students performed almost equally in IQ and English Papers. But for the Comprehension paper, Tamil Medium candidates scored on average 17 marks more than the Sinhala Medium Students.
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In Tamil medium comprehension paper, the marks distribution has a considerable shift to the right in comparison to the Sinhala Medium paper. The mean of the Tamil paper is 62.8 while Sinhala comprehension paper marks have a Mean of 45.7. This 17 point difference indicate a significant advantage for the Tamil medium students.
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The reason behind the difference could mean one or more of the following things,
1. Tamil Medium students got an easy paper
2. The examiners of the Tamil paper were more sympathetic towards candidates while paper marking
Either way above mark distribution suggests there were considerable disadvantages for the Sinhala medium students.
This is not limited to this exam, this has been an ongoing issue for some time. Using the aggregate of raw marks for university admission was an unreliable and obsolete method (discarded by most countries) and was proving to be a grave injustice to students. Because of the variance and discrepancies that exist between the variety of papers offered, and therefore the element of subjectivity between different examiners during marking. Apart from a few instances where objectivity can be maintained to a degree (e.g. in MCQ), in most other situations the variance is significant.
The Department of Examinations should implement a solution for this long-standing issue. The department already has a well-tested solution for this problem, the Z-score system. Otherwise, they can go for more MCQ-based question papers in these type of competitive exams.
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