The compulsory age limit of schooling is from 5 to 14 years.

Due to various reasons approximately 50,000 children do not attend schools. With the help of Grama Niladharies, School Principals and Divisional Secretaries, a project to identify those unfortunate children who don’t attend schools has been launched, R. M. Herath, a Director of Education in the Kurunegala district, told The Island.

He said that children who are reluctant to attend schools will be directed to attend non-formal educational institutes where they will have training on vocational fields in order to make them useful citizens. W. E. Jayathilake, the former Divisional Secretary for Bingiriya told The Island that many children who don’t attend schools are from broken families. In most cases the parents have gone abroad for employment. Consequently, more children have gone astray without proper education.