Daham Pasala

Overview

Daham Pasala (literally "Dhamma school") is Sri Lanka's Sunday Buddhist education system for children, run through Buddhist temples across the island. Sri Lanka has well over 10,000 registered Dhamma schools, with an estimated two million students attending. The system is coordinated by the Ministry of Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs through its Department of Buddhist Affairs, with the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress also involved in supporting the network.

Daham Pasala runs alongside, not instead of, a child's regular weekday schooling. Classes are usually held on Sunday mornings at a temple, taught by lay volunteer teachers or monks, and cover Buddhist teaching rather than the general national curriculum.

Who can apply

Daham Pasala is open to school-age Buddhist children, typically starting from around age five or six at the entry level and continuing through levels that broadly track the school-age years. Enrolment is informal and ongoing: a parent registers a child directly with a Daham Pasala at a local temple rather than through any central application.

Beyond the student grades, some Daham Pasalas also run a Dharmacharya track for older students and prospective teachers, and the Department of Examinations separately conducts a Dhamma School Teachers' Certificate Examination (also referred to as the Bauddha Dharmacharya Certificate Examination) for adults who teach at a Daham Pasala.

Exam pattern

Two distinct kinds of examination exist within the Daham Pasala system:

• Annual grading examinations, set to test Dhamma knowledge at each grade level within a Daham Pasala. These are organised island-wide: a registered Daham Pasala applies through the Registrar Thera of its Divisional Sasana Rakshaka Mandalaya, question papers and stationery are issued to the Registrar Thera around November, and the examination is then held at the school.

• A Daham Pasal Final Certificate Examination, conducted centrally by Sri Lanka's Department of Examinations (the same department that runs the GCE O-Level and A-Level), covering the completion of the Dhamma-school syllabus. For 2026 (covering the 2025 academic year), this examination was scheduled for September 2026.

The Department of Examinations also conducts similarly named final certificate examinations for other religious community schools in Sri Lanka — for example Hindu Araneri schools, Catholic catechism Daham Pasal, and Ahadhiyya (Islamic) schools — each a separate examination from the Buddhist Daham Pasal Final Certificate Examination described here.

Detailed subject-wise paper structure (number of papers, duration, question types) for the Final Certificate Examination is not confirmed in the sources available for this file, so it is not stated here.

Marking and results

Results for the Daham Pasal Final Certificate Examination are released by the Department of Examinations, typically some months after the sitting, and are published through the department's results channels (doenets.lk and the examinations results portal). Specific pass-mark thresholds and grading bands are not confirmed in the sources available for this file.

Important dates

For the 2026 sitting (covering the 2025 academic year), the Daham Pasal Final Certificate Examination was scheduled for September 2026. Annual school-level grading examinations are organised on a separate yearly cycle, with question papers typically issued to temples around November. Exact dates change from year to year; check the Department of Examinations' notices for the current cycle.

How to apply

A child joins a Daham Pasala by registering directly with a temple that runs one, rather than through any central office. For the annual grading examinations, the Daham Pasala itself (not the individual student) applies on students' behalf through the Registrar Thera of its Divisional Sasana Rakshaka Mandalaya.

For the Daham Pasal Final Certificate Examination, the Department of Examinations periodically calls for applications; students already enrolled at a registered Daham Pasala apply through their own school, and application forms are made available through the Department of Examinations.

After the exam

Passing the Daham Pasal Final Certificate Examination is treated as completion of the structured Dhamma-school track. It is not confirmed in the available sources whether this certificate carries any formal recognition within Sri Lanka's mainstream school system; it functions primarily within Buddhist religious and community education. Students who wish to go on to teach at a Daham Pasala, or to pursue further religious studies, may continue toward the Dharmacharya level and the separate Dhamma School Teachers' Certificate Examination.

Preparation tips

Children generally prepare through their regular weekly Daham Pasala classes rather than any private coaching system, since the syllabus is taught directly at the temple. For the Final Certificate Examination, some Sri Lankan education websites publish past question papers that students use for revision alongside their Daham Pasala teacher's guidance.