School Admissions in Sri Lanka - Especially to Grade ONE

It is the time all over again for entry into Grade 1 for January 1st 2018

The Government has published the (two full pages of details on how the marks are allocated and how students are chosen for particular schools of the parents choice)

However as the article today shows how completely and UTTERLY despicable the whole process is, and if you were a parent with even a little bit of self respect and ability to afford it you would NOT in a million years want to go through this trial to get your child into a school this way.

http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/The-truth-about-school-admissions-131295.html

The link above shows an article that goes into detail about what actually happens, and why it is so unfair to the most qualified students especially those living literally NEXT door who cannot put their children to that school because of unfair and frankly illegal practices of the Politicians.

In fact I just saw in a a newspaper today, that a Principal of just one year in a Gampaha School has asked for a transfer immediately due to undue pressure from politicians.

This is simply untenable as the biggest headache principals face in Sri Lanka schools is the admission of students into Grade 1. There is a lot of bribery and money involved and parents are particularly bad on this as they somehow get a message accross that they are willing to pay so much to have their kid put in. So the bribe even if NOT solicited, is known prior to making the decision and so the Principal is faced with a huge dilemma, as they see these parents who are wealthy and they are absolutely penurious, and money TALKS! Its temptation staring at you.

How do you resolve this? I know it is for just 250 schools in the Country that this is a problem where the competition is fiercest. However there is NO REAL PLAN to resolve this crisis as parents are NOT willing to compromise when it come to which schools they will go to any lengths to put their children in!

Something to ponder, we are still trying to come up with the best solution for this NEVER ENDING problem.