Thirteen Years Guaranteed Education Program

Government's program to provide 13 years of continued education to Sri Lankan students will commence from next year at 860 schools island wide. Although the primary and secondary level education due to the free education policy has achieved significant improvement in Sri Lanka, it has been observed that approximately, 80,000 students of about 250,000 to 300,000 students, who sit for the GCE Ordinary Level Examination leave the school system annually when they failed to qualify for the GCE Advanced Level based on the Ordinary Level results.

As such, the implementation of a program to secure a certified education continuously for 13 years with the intention of providing a solution to the issue to enable students, regardless of their results at the G.C.E. (O/L) Examination, to continue another two years of school education to gain competency of at least one subject out of the 26 vocational subjects, has been commenced.

The new system will allow the students, who do not pass the GCE Ordinary Level to proceed to Advanced Level and deprived of further education, to pursue vocational studies to succeed in future.The government has allocated Rs. 5 billion to implement the '13 Years Certified Education' covering the entire school system from 2019.

The Cabinet of Ministers has granted approval to a proposal submitted by the Minister of Education Akila Viraj Kariyawasam to implement the program in 860 schools island-wide from 2019 and to secure the necessary facilities for the purpose.