The second phase of the third school term for government and government-approved private schools begins on Monday, 7 September, NewsFirst reported.
Update, September 7: the term dates
Schools reopened on Monday as scheduled. The phase runs from 7 September to 4 December, according to the Ministry of Education, NewsFirst and Hiru News both reported — a term of just under 13 weeks, and the last of the 2026 school year.
NewsFirst added that the first phase of the third term, for Sinhala and Tamil medium students, ended on Friday, 7 August. That leaves a break of a full month between the two phases, which is the gap the dengue clean-up order below was addressing.
Hiru reported that cleaning work across school premises island-wide was carried out on Sunday, 6 September, the day before reopening — a narrower account than the Education Ministry instruction NewsFirst described, which covered both Saturday and Sunday.
Dengue work before the gates open
The Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education instructed schools to carry out dengue eradication activities on Saturday and Sunday, immediately ahead of reopening.
Those instructions are being checked. Pradeep Boralessa, Deputy Chairman of the Public Health Inspectors’ Association, said inspections to monitor mosquito-control work have already begun.
Ordering the clean-up in the two days before reopening rather than during the holidays points to school premises left unattended over the break — the standard breeding risk, since discarded containers and roof gutters collect water while buildings stand empty. School premises have repeatedly tested far worse than homes in premises inspections, and the national case count has continued to climb through the year.
Transport
The Sri Lanka Transport Board said additional buses, including Sisu Seriya school services, will be deployed from Monday based on demand. It did not give a number.
Not the A/L cohort
Monday’s reopening does not affect this year’s Advanced Level candidates, whose examination concluded on Saturday. Marking of those scripts began this week and is due to finish by 25 October, with practical examinations from 24 September and results targeted before the end of the year. A total of 372,310 candidates sat the examination, which opened on 10 August.
Not reported
The term dates are now published, but no outlet has given the calendar beyond 4 December — when the 2027 school year begins has not been reported. None says how many schools are covered, whether the dengue instruction applied to all of them, or what happens where the clean-up was not carried out. No figure was given for how many premises the PHIs expect to inspect or over what period, and no outlet has reported the results of the inspections that had already begun.
The SLTB gave no number for the additional buses, no routes, and no indication of how “demand” will be judged, and has not said what was actually deployed on Monday. Neither the Education Ministry nor the SLTB has been quoted directly by any outlet. Ada Derana and the Daily Mirror had still not carried the reopening at the time of writing.
