July 14, Colombo (LNW): Sweeping changes are on the horizon for Sri Lanka’s school system, with the Ministry of Education confirming a reduction in the number of daily classroom periods from eight to seven, effective from January 01 next year.
As part of the restructuring, each period will be extended to 50 minutes, prompting a comprehensive overhaul of existing school timetables across the country.
Education Ministry Secretary Nalaka Kaluwewa outlined the reforms during a high-level briefing with education officials held at the North Central Provincial Council last week. The session marked the first in a series of awareness programmes intended to prepare school administrators and educators at provincial, zonal, and divisional levels for the ambitious overhaul of the national curriculum.
Kaluwewa stressed that the reduction in periods is not a cutback in content but a recalibration designed to promote more meaningful learning experiences within each session. The move, he said, aims to ease the pressure of fragmented timetables and improve the overall quality of instruction.
In preparation for the full-scale launch of curriculum reforms in 2026, special attention is being directed toward grades 1 and 6, which will serve as the starting points for implementation. To that end, an extensive training initiative is being rolled out to equip over 100,000 teachers with updated pedagogical tools and methodologies suitable for the reformed system.
This training is being led collaboratively by the Ministry of Education, the National Institute of Education, and the Provincial Councils.
