Pinnawala Central College was established in 1882 as the 'Government Boys' School' on of land with 45 students and 6 teachers in one building. There were no written records from 1882 to 1926. According to the written history, Mr. Brampisingo was the first principal, appointed for 1920–1926. In the beginning, there were only a few classes covered local syllabus for grade 1 to 5. In 1956, the school was upgraded to a mixed(co-educational) school. The school student population also got increased drastically from 1926 to 1958 and new buildings and staff were added to the school. A contribution was offered by philanthropist and late minister N. H. Keerthiratne and S. A. Lokubandara Bentota.
