The Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education has rejected calls from various parties to postpone the 2026 G.C.E. Advanced Level examination, saying candidates have already been given sufficient preparation time and the paper will proceed as scheduled on August 10.
In a statement issued by the Secretary to the Ministry, officials said the National Institute of Education’s Teacher’s Guides stipulate that 300 school days are required to adequately cover the A/L syllabus. Students sitting the 2026 paper will have had 343 school days of instruction from the official commencement of academic activities up to August 7, the Ministry said — 43 days above the recommended minimum.
Candidates appearing for the examination for the second or third time will have had a period of four months and ten days between the release of the previous A/L results and the new examination, the Ministry added, arguing that this also constituted adequate preparation time.
“Sufficient time has been provided and there is no necessity to revise or postpone the scheduled examination period,” the statement said.
The decision closes off the postponement debate that intensified earlier this month, when opposition MP Dilith Jayaweera urged the government to reconsider the August schedule, arguing that Cyclone Ditwah disruption had cut into candidates’ preparation time. The 2026 timetable, first published on June 8, runs the examination over 22 days from August 10 to September 5, with subjects scheduled in both morning and afternoon sessions.
The cohort sitting the paper will do so months after the 2025 A/L cohort received their results, with 62.64% qualifying for university entrance, and shortly after the recently released 2025 O/Level results.
