The Department of Examinations released the results of the 2026 Grade 5 Scholarship Examination on Wednesday, setting this year’s cut-off mark at 139.

Commissioner General of Examinations A.K.S. Indika Kumari Liyanage said around 56,000 candidates scored above the cut-off. She gave the figures at a media briefing at the Department of Examinations on Wednesday afternoon, several hours after the results were first published online at the department’s website, doenets.lk.

The highest mark in the Sinhala medium, 193, was obtained by a student from the Kurunegala District. The highest Tamil medium score, 188, went to a student from the Jaffna District.

Liyanage said 1,018 students with special needs sat the examination this year, including 18 candidates who used the Braille medium.

The examination was held on August 9 at 2,723 examination centres islandwide. It is the first national selection test in the Sri Lankan school system and determines admission to sought-after secondary schools, making it one of the most closely watched dates in the school calendar.

The date for applications for re-scrutiny of the results will be announced later, the Commissioner General said.

A gap in the candidate figures

The newsrooms covering the release did not agree on how many children sat the paper.

Ada Derana’s early filing, NewsFirst and Hiru News each reported that 294,089 candidates sat the examination, comprising 220,366 in the Sinhala medium and 73,723 in the Tamil medium — the same total carried in pre-examination reporting in August.

Ada Derana’s later reports from the Commissioner General’s briefing gave different numbers: 294,132 applicants registered, of whom 289,867 actually sat. On those figures, 4,265 registered candidates were absent.

No outlet flagged the discrepancy or said which set is final. The 294,089 total appears to be a registration figure rather than an attendance count. LankaNewz is reporting both until the department clarifies.

Update: the island’s top Sinhala-medium scorer is named

Hiru News has named the student with the highest Sinhala-medium mark as Dhanosh Theekshana Weerasekara of Ahetuwewa Model Primary School in the Kurunegala District, confirming the 193-mark score reported above.

Hiru said the Commissioner General of Examinations has officially confirmed him as the island’s highest Sinhala-medium scorer on this year’s results sheet.

The school’s name is rendered two ways in Hiru’s own coverage — Ahetuwewa in the English text and Ehetuwewa in its Sinhala-language link. Neither spelling has appeared in this archive before, so there is no precedent to settle it; the English form is used here.

No outlet has yet named the Tamil-medium leader, who scored 188 in the Jaffna District.

Update, September 3: Grade 6 admission applications to be filed online

The Ministry of Education has announced that applications for admission to Grade 6, based on the 2026 Grade 5 Scholarship Examination results, can be submitted online through school principals.

Issuing a statement, the ministry said the dates and detailed instructions for submitting applications will be announced in due course. No timetable has been given, and the ministry did not say whether the online route replaces or runs alongside the existing paper process.

That leaves two dates outstanding for parents: the application window for Grade 6 admissions, and the re-scrutiny application date the Commissioner General said on Wednesday would be announced later.

Sources