Evaluation of this year’s G.C.E. Advanced Level examination answer scripts has begun, a day after the examination concluded, NewsFirst reported.
Commissioner General of Examinations Indika Kumari Liyanage said the evaluation is being carried out in three stages and is scheduled to be completed by 25 October.
Practical examinations linked to the Advanced Level are due to begin on 24 September.
The Commissioner General said plans are in place to release the results before the end of this year.
The examination
The 2026 A/L examination began on 10 August and concluded on Saturday (5). A total of 372,310 candidates sat the examination — 264,496 school applicants and 107,814 private applicants — across 2,532 centres islandwide.
Marking roughly 372,000 candidates’ scripts in seven weeks is a compressed timetable, and the year-end results target would put this cohort’s university admissions cycle broadly in line with recent years.
A slipped start
The timetable has moved. At a press conference on 10 August, the day the examination opened, the Commissioner General said evaluation was scheduled to commence on 3 September, according to Ada Derana’s report at the time. NewsFirst reports it starting on or about 6 September, three days later than that plan.
Neither the reason for the shift nor its effect on the 25 October completion date has been reported. Staged marking of subjects already sat is routine, so the earlier date may have referred to the first of the three stages rather than to the whole process.
Context
This year’s examination has not been without incident. In August, the Department of Examinations opened an investigation into A/L physics papers in Ambalantota. Ahead of the examination, authorities arranged some 1,700 special buses to carry candidates to centres.
The Commissioner General did not say how many examiners have been engaged for the marking, what the three stages consist of, or a specific date for the release of results. No other newsroom had reported the start of evaluation at the time of writing.
