# Grade 5 Scholarship Cut-Off Marks 2024-2026

Page: https://hirantha.me/updates/grade-5-scholarship-cutoff-marks
Source: Department of Examinations, Sri Lanka, 2026-09-03

District cut-off marks for the Grade 5 Scholarship Exam, Sinhala and Tamil medium, 2024 to 2026. Enter a mark to check it, and see twelve years of the trend. The school-by-school Grade 6 list has its own page.

The district cut-off marks for the Grade 5 Scholarship Examination - every district, both mediums - for 2026, 2025 and 2024, transcribed from the Department of Examinations' sheets and checked across independent sources. Enter your child's mark to see whether it clears the cut-off for your district and medium, by how much, and how the same mark would have fared in other years. 289,867 children sat the 2026 exam.

The exam is two papers of 100 marks each, so a child's total is out of 200. Once results are out, the Department of Examinations sets a cut-off for each district and each medium of instruction. A total on or above that line is what the Department calls qualified - eligible for the bursary and to apply for admission to a popular school in Grade 6. The Department also reports a single 'common cut-off', which is the top band: the figure that applies in Colombo and the other highest-scoring districts. In 2026 that was 139 in Sinhala medium and 135 in Tamil medium.

The line is set per district and per medium rather than island-wide, so eligibility reflects the field a child actually competed in. That is why the same 134 clears the Sinhala-medium cut-off in Badulla and misses it in Colombo, and why the sheet shows no Sinhala-medium figure for Jaffna in any of the three years, nor for Kilinochchi in 2024 and 2026 (Kilinochchi had 127 in 2025). The Department has not said why; we assume there were too few Sinhala-medium candidates to set a line, but that is our inference, not a stated reason. 'Not published' on this page means the Department printed no figure, and a mark is never compared against it.

The cut-off is not the pass mark. The Department's statistics count children who scored 70 or above (35 or more on each paper) as a separate, much larger group - 70.4 percent of everyone who sat in 2025. Only the cut-off decides bursary eligibility and school applications. Parents sometimes hear '70 is the pass' and read a 120 as a comfortable result when it is well below every district's cut-off; the two numbers answer different questions.

The school-by-school question, which specific school a mark reaches for Grade 6 admission, is answered on its own page: Grade 6 school cut-off marks. That page holds the 302 schools on the Ministry of Education's latest list with a school finder, the steps from scholarship result to appeal, and a plain account of how the list was checked. The Ministry publishes it separately from the district cut-offs on this page.

Reading the numbers:
| What you see | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| A number | The lowest total mark (out of 200) that qualified in that district and medium that year. Scoring on or above it qualifies. |
| not published | The Department printed no cut-off for that medium in that district: Sinhala medium in Jaffna in all three years, and in Kilinochchi in 2024 and 2026. It has not said why, and a mark is never compared against it. |
| Common cut-off | The top band, applying in Colombo and the other highest-scoring districts. No district's cut-off is above it. |
| ≈ | An approximate figure from a single news report on results day, not confirmed by a second source, shown until the Department's statistical report gives the exact count. |

Q: What is the Grade 5 Scholarship cut-off mark for 2026?
A: It depends on the district and the medium. The common cut-off - the top band - is 139 for Sinhala medium and 135 for Tamil medium. Across districts the Sinhala-medium figure ranges from 125 (Mannar, Vavuniya, Mullaitivu, Batticaloa) to 139, and the Tamil-medium figure from 130 (Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa) to 135. Pick your district in the All districts view for the exact number.

Q: Is 70 the pass mark for the scholarship exam?
A: No. Seventy - 35 on each of the two papers - is a level the Department reports on in its statistics, and most children clear it (70.4 percent in 2025). The cut-off, which decides bursary eligibility and school applications, is far higher: no district's 2026 cut-off is below 125. A total that clears 70 but not the district cut-off has not qualified.

Q: Why is the cut-off different in each district?
A: Because it is set per district and per medium, so eligibility is judged against the field a child actually competed in rather than a single national line. Districts whose candidates score highest as a group carry the highest cut-offs - in 2026, nine districts share the top figure of 139 in Sinhala medium - and the same paper qualifies at 125 in Mannar.

Q: Why is there no Sinhala-medium cut-off for Jaffna, or for Kilinochchi in some years?
A: The Department published no Sinhala-medium cut-off for Jaffna in 2024, 2025 or 2026, nor for Kilinochchi in 2024 or 2026 (Kilinochchi has 127 for 2025). It has not said why. Our assumption is that too few children sat in Sinhala medium there to set a line, but that is our inference. Both districts have a Tamil-medium cut-off every year. On this page those cells read 'not published', and the tool will not compare a mark against them.

Q: My child cleared the cut-off. Does that get them into a popular school?
A: Not on its own. Clearing the district cut-off makes a child eligible to apply. Each school with a cut-off then has its own mark on a separate list from the Ministry of Education; on the list for 2026 admission those marks run from 131 to 176, out of 200. The Ministry also runs appeal rounds for children who qualified but were not allocated a school. The Grade 6 school cut-off marks page has that list.

Q: Where are the school-by-school cut-off marks?
A: On the Grade 6 school cut-off marks page, which holds the 302 schools on the Ministry's latest list, Sinhala and Tamil medium, with a school finder and a plain account of how the table was checked. They moved off this page so that the list, the process and the appeal windows sit in one place.

Q: Is the 2026 data final?
A: The district cut-off sheet is what the Department released around the results, on 2 to 3 September 2026, and it is transcribed here from two independent sources that agree on every one of the 50 figures. We call it the released sheet rather than final, because marks can still be re-scrutinised after the results. What is still to come is the Department's 'Performance of Candidates' report, which gives the exact number who qualified (the approximate 56,000 shown here comes from a single news report and is marked as such) and the per-district candidate counts. Those are shown for 2024 and 2025, which have their reports, and will be added for 2026 when it is published.

Q: How many children sat the 2026 exam, and how many qualified?
A: 294,132 applied and 289,867 sat, on 9 August 2026. One news report on results day put the number who scored on or above their district cut-off at about 56,000; we could not confirm that from a second source, and the Department's own count has not been published. The Department awards 20,000 scholarships, 250 of them reserved for children with special needs. The highest marks were 193 in Sinhala medium, from Kurunegala, and 188 in Tamil medium, from Jaffna.

Q: Are the cut-offs getting lower?
A: In Sinhala medium, yes - 139 in 2026 is the lowest common cut-off in the twelve years shown here, down from a peak of 169 in 2020 and 143 in 2024. Tamil medium has moved similarly: 135 in 2026 is the second-lowest in the series, after 134 in 2025. A lower cut-off is not easier marking; the Department sets the line from that year's results, so it reflects how the field scored. The 12-year trend view shows the whole series alongside how many sat each year.

Q: Where does this data come from, and is any of it estimated?
A: Nothing is estimated, with one exception: the 2026 count of children who qualified (about 56,000) is an approximate figure from a single news report and is marked as reported. The cut-offs are transcribed from the Department of Examinations' district sheets, and every one of the 150 figures was checked against at least two independent transcriptions that agree; the one cell where sources differed (Ampara, Tamil medium, 2025) carries the value two of three sources give. The candidate statistics for 2024 and 2025 are copied from the text of the Department's own 'Performance of Candidates' reports, and the per-district figures here add up to the reports' all-island totals. Sources are listed below.

Q: How do I check my child's actual result?
A: On the Department of Examinations' sites, doenets.lk or results.exams.gov.lk, with the index number from the admission card. This page does not look results up and never asks for an index number - it only tells you what a mark means once you have it.

Q: Can I use this on my phone?
A: Yes. Everything runs in your browser with no account, the tool works in English, Sinhala and Tamil, and the district table scrolls sideways on a narrow screen rather than squashing. Nothing you type is saved or sent anywhere.

Sources: Department of Examinations, Sri Lanka (https://www.doenets.lk/); Grade 5 Scholarship Examination 2025 - Performance of Candidates (Department of Examinations, PDF) (https://www.doenets.lk/images/resources/STAT/Grade%205%20Exam%20-%202025_1759404458482.pdf); Grade 5 Scholarship Examination 2024 - Performance of Candidates (Department of Examinations, PDF) (https://www.doenets.lk/images/resources/STAT/2024G5ScholarshipPoC_1739441204327.pdf); 2026 district cut-offs - guruwaraya.lk, 3 Sep 2026 (https://www.guruwaraya.lk/2026/09/grade-5-scholarship-exam-2026-district.html); 2026 district cut-offs - tamilguru.lk (https://tamilguru.lk/grade-5-scholarship-exam-cut-off-marks-2026); 2026 results announcement - Ada Derana, 2 Sep 2026 (https://adaderana.lk/news/cmtk16s3n0001356qhgqhakob); 2025 district cut-offs - guruwaraya.lk, 4 Sep 2025 (https://www.guruwaraya.lk/2025/09/grade-5-scholarship-cut-off-marks-2025.html); 2025 district cut-offs - tamilguru.lk (https://tamilguru.lk/grade-5-scholarship-exam-cut-off-marks-2025); 2024 district cut-offs - Ada Derana, 23 Jan 2025 (https://adaderana.lk/news.php?nid=105211); 2024 district cut-offs - tamilguru.lk (https://tamilguru.lk/grade-5-scholarship-exam-cut-off-marks-2024); Grade 6 school placement portal - Ministry of Education (https://g6application.moe.gov.lk/); Sri Lanka Grade 5 Scholarship Cut-Off Marks by District (2026 Results) - induwara.lk (https://induwara.lk/tools/sri-lanka-grade-5-scholarship-cutoff-marks)

The full, searchable tables are on the page: https://hirantha.me/updates/grade-5-scholarship-cutoff-marks