HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF SRI LANKA, Annual Report 2018 Non-issuance of a school leaving certificate (Complaint No. HRC/293/18) In November 2018, the Commission made a recommendation directing the Principal of a public school in the Western Province to issue a leaving certificate to the petitioner’s son in order for him to be admitted to another public school. The petitioner stated that the reason for changing schools was due to the lack of resources in his current school to pursue study in the Engineering Technology stream. The principal of the current school counter argued that the leaving certificate was not issued due to the failure of the parents to produce a letter of admission from the new school or from the Director of National schools as required by circular No. 2008/17. The Commission noted that the relevant provision in this instance was Section 5 of the said circular, according to which, if a school does not possess necessary resources for students to pursue studies in a particular study stream the Zonal or Provincial Director of Education must ensure students are admitted to other schools within the area with such facilities. The HRCSL held, therefore, that the principal of the current school by withholding the leaving certificate of the student and thereby depriving the student of the opportunity to engage in studies in the requisite field within the requisite time, had violated Article 12(1) of the Constitution and directed the leaving certificate be issued to the student. ▪ ▪ Admission to Grade 1 of a public school (Complaint No. HRC/3283/17) Responding to a complaint that the petitioner’s child has been unfairly deprived of admission to a leading public school in Colombo, the Commission found a violation of Article 12(1) of the Constitution and directed the child be admitted to the public school. Based on the circulars No. 22/2017, 22/2017(1) and letter ED/01/12/09/04/03 issued by the Minister of Education to principals which requires applications for admission to Grade 1 not to be rejected by reason of the absence of marks i.e. ‘0’ marks, for one of the criteria, if the basic requirement of scoring above the cutoff mark is fulfilled, the Commission found that the petitioner’s application has scored 76.75 marks, well above the cutoff mark of 71. The school authorities’ decision 53