All schools in the Hatton Education Zone will remain closed on Friday, the Zonal Director of Education announced on Thursday evening, citing the prevailing adverse weather conditions in the central plantation belt.
The Hatton Education Zone covers estate-sector and town schools across the Nuwara Eliya district, an area that has been battered by continuous rainfall over the past 48 hours and now sits inside the highest-tier warnings issued by both the Department of Meteorology and the National Building Research Organisation.
Earlier on Thursday, the Met Department issued a Red Warning — its top alert level — for the Western, Sabaragamuwa and North Western Provinces and for Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Galle and Matara districts, with rainfall exceeding 150 mm expected in several locations. The NBRO has extended Level 2 landslide warnings into Friday afternoon for parts of Galle, Kalutara, Ratnapura and surrounding districts, flagging ground cracks, leaning trees and water seepage as signs of slope instability.
The Hatton-Dickoya area has already seen significant disruption, with around 50 estate-line homes flooded at Fordyce Estate earlier in the cycle. Closing schools across the zone removes the daily journey on narrow plantation roads — many of which run along unstable slopes — and reduces the risk of children being caught in transit if conditions worsen overnight.
Parents and guardians have been asked to monitor school-level communications for updates beyond Friday. Authorities said the decision would be reviewed on Friday in light of rainfall and landslide-risk updates.
Source: Newswire.
