Is the G.C.E. (AL) Bio Science stream a dead end to many? An analysis of educational opportunity in the Bio Science stream

The Biological Science (Bio Science) stream had remained very popular and competitive among the subject streams offered at the General Certificate of Education, Advanced Level, as it paves the way for admission to some of the prestigious faculties in the universities. There was a clear swing towards the Science streams during the period following the 1972 curricular reforms, through which Science and Maths came to be taught in all secondary schools that had grades up to G.C.E., OL. However the trend has changed in recent years with student numbers enrolling for Science decreasing by about 16 per cent between years 1986 and 1996. This swing away from Science had been partly attributed to the highly selective and restrictive admission policies followed by the faculties concerned in the universities, amidst an increasing demand for places. The objective of this paper, therefore, is to analyse the trends prevailing in the Bio Science stream during the period, 1990 to 2000. It was revealed from the study that the number eligible for admission to universities had increased during the period concerned. However, the percentage admitted had remained low despite variations from year to year. All relevant faculties - Medicine, Science, Agriculture, Veterinary Science and Dental have followed very restrictive admission policies and the percentage of admissions had remained constant despite increasing pressure during the relevant period. It was also revealed that nearly 75 per cent of eligible candidates have been annually shut off from universities. Even though a large number of females qualify for admission, the probability of a female being admitted remains at 0.23. The question at stake is whether faculties will democratize their admission to a certain extent or remain exclusive amidst the current growing demand.


Introduction
The establishment of the Ceylon Medical School in 1870, followed by the Ceylon University College in 1921, and the subsequent amalgam ation of the two institutions to form the University of Ceylon in 1942, provided the long awaited opportunity for university education in Bio Science in Ceylon. This was the much-desired breakthrough after a long period of continuous agitation for higer education. Education in Bio Science became very attractive as it paved the way for lucrative professional occupations, which were in great demand due to the recognition of these institutions in Britain. Since then the aspirations of secondary school students have taken a slight turn with professions like teacher, nurse and accountant emerging as popular career options and at present, teaching and nursing appear to be close preferences along with medicine for future careers, specially among female students. Table 1 gives a summary of vocational aspirations of students according to major research studies conducted during the period 1952 to 1998. It is pertinent to find out the reasons for this swing away from Science. Discussions with Science teach ers from secondary schools reveals that this is due to the frustration the students undergo in the Bio Science stream by failing to get admission to Science-based courses in universities, particularly Medicine.

The opportunities provided for higher education in Bio
The objective of this paper, therefore, is to analyze the prevailing situation in the Bio Science stream regarding opportunity for admission to national universities and highlight the changes that have taken place in secondary school enrolment for Science over the period 1990-2000.   The difference in opportunity for admission to a university between Bio and Physical streams re main very distinct. Bio Science has offered less opportunity for a large number who have quali fied and who have demanded a place in a univer sity. This has been the case specially regarding the field of Medicine, the aspiration of many students who select the Bio stream. Table 5 gives the distribution of students who had been admitted from AL Bio Science to the differ ent Faculties in the universities. The figures are given as numbers and percentages calculated from the total number who had qualified from Bio Science in the relevant years.
A perusal of Table 5 indicates that the Medical Faculties, the most sought after, admits only 881 students or 8.4% of the 10,470 students who have qualified in 2000. The figure approximately corresponds to 31% of the 2835 admitted for the same year. Over the period concerned, the Medical Faculties of the universities have confined their admission to between 7.4 and 11.1% out of the total number qualifying.    This situation was earlier analysed by Indraratne and Kotahachchi (1993) by examining admissions during the period 1981-82 to 1990-91 and attributed it to the differences in achievement between males and females -the raw aggregate marks scored by the two groups. During the period concerned, out of the qualified, 29.18% of the males had entered, and they concluded that even though a larger num ber of females qualify by achieving the minimum mark, they fail to get admission due to their inabil ity to clear the cut off point. Table 7.

Source: University Grants Commission Admis sions Data Records
The researchers attributed this difference to the raw aggregate marks scored by the two groups, which in turn is a direct result of their perfor mance in the subjects.
The percentage of A and B grades scored by the males amd females in the five subjects are given in Table 8.
Jayaweera and Rupasinghe also analysed the dis tribution of aggregate marks of students who failed to get selected in 1993-1994. The data is given in Table 9.
Out of the 2104 who failed to get admitted among applicants (Table 9)

Conclusions
The review of data presented in the preceding sections leads us to the following conclusions.
1. Within the Science stream at collegiate level a large number of students qualify for admis sion in Bio Science. In recent years approxi mately around 14-15% of the total number of students qualifying (all streams) belonged to the Bio Science stream. Numerically their strength had been between 10,000 and 12,000.
2. In each cohort of students seeking admission to universities in Bio Science annually, around 75% of them had been shut out due to non availability of places in university faculties.
Numerically this had been about 7000 to 8000 students. Therefore the probability of a Bio Science student getting selected to the univer sity, based on figures for the last three aca demic years, is 0.25, compared to Physical Science, which is 0.66.
3. All five University Faculties that are taking in students from Bio Science have followed very restrictive policies in the admission of students. During the last three academic years Medicine has restricted itself to 8%. Science 9.6%, Agri culture 6% and Vet & Dental 1.5% of the total qualifying in the Bio Science stream.
4. Even though, a large percentage of female stu dents qualify for admission in Bio Science, their chances of getting into a University Faculty of their choice is very slim. The probability of qualifying for females is 0.59, but the prob ability of getting admitted is 0.23. Previous research on this aspect also confirms the current situation.
5. The District Quota System which was intro duced in 1974, as a measure of social justice in compensating for the obvious regional dis parities in education, especially Science, also acts as a barrier for some of the high achiev ing students in more developed and populated districts. If the District Quota System is abol ished, chances that students from areas such as Moneragala will have, to enter the Univer sity, will be meagre.
6. The sudden upward trend in the enrolment of students at collegiate level in recent years will definitely have a bearing on university admis sions. If the universities fail to democratise, their admission policies or explore alterna tive and diversified opportunities, the situa tion could generate more competition result ing in frustration among a large student popu lation for whom the doors of the universities will remain closed.

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S. Rupasinghe 7. Finally, considering the above facts it would be pertinent to raise the question -will the G.C.E. AL Bio Science stream lead the major ity of the students along a blind alley? Will it be a dead end for a large number of students who aspire to join the most prestigious facul ties of national universities?