• Authorities given time till 7 Nov. to reverse decision or face islandwide action in Dec. 2nd week

The Teachers’ and Principals’ Trade Union Alliance has announced that it will give the Government time until 7 November to reverse the decision to extend the duration of each school day.

The Union further warned that if the decision (to extend school hours by 30 minutes till 2 p.m.) is not changed, it will launch island-wide trade union action during the second week of next month.

The General Secretary of the Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTUI), Joseph Stalin made this statement while addressing a media briefing held in Colombo.

The CTU President Priyantha Fernando stated that if the Government does not respond positively to the one-day strike planned for the second week of December against the decision to extend school hours until 2 p.m. from January of next year (2026), it would not hesitate to launch a continuous strike against the move. 

Speaking to The Daily Morning, Fernando claimed that the statement made by the Prime Minister and Education Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya that there is no opposition from teachers to the Government’s decision is completely false. 

“We have been going from school to school discussing this with teachers over the past few weeks. They are against this decision.” Commenting on the CTU's plans, he said that they would launch a one-day strike when schools reopen on 8 December after the General Certificate of Education Advanced Level (A/L) Examination. 

“If we don’t receive a positive response from the Government even after the one-day strike, we will not hesitate to launch a continuous strike. However, we will take part in A/L Examination duties without any hindrance,” he said.

The CTU’s stance comes as the Education Ministry reiterated that there would be no change to the decision to extend school hours from 7.30 a.m. to 2 p.m. from January 2026, increasing the current schedule by 30 minutes. Education Ministry Secretary Nalaka Kaluwewa recently said that the Ministry is only implementing reforms designed by the National Institute of Education (NIE), which holds the technical expertise in the area. 

He explained that the NIE had initially proposed extending each period to one hour, but that the Ministry had requested that it be reduced to 50 minutes for practical reasons. If each period is 50 minutes long, he said that school hours must be extended until 2 p.m.