Taking women’s education to a new dimension
Southlands College - 125 golden years of academic
excellence during the past decade:
Southlands College, situated within the
surroundings of the World Heritage Zone, could be a legend in the
history of education in the Southern Province as well as in the island
with her great achievements throughout a long period of 125 years. The
school will be commemorating her 125th birthday in few months time. This
is a glance at her achievements
Shantha MANAWADU ABEYSEKERA
Southlands College is one of the premier girls schools in the
Southern Sri Lanka originated by the Methodist Mission in 1885 as an
English medium educational institution which had served as a
multi-religious, multi-cultural society 125 years ago.
The missionary management concluded in 1956 and the school was vested
in the Government in 1962. Even though the school functioned as a senior
secondary school and no facilities for higher education was available
during the missionary period, the Principals helped many a student
continue their higher studies away from school since they had liberal
ideas on women’s education. Thus with the foundation given at
Southlands, the school had produced distinguished and renowned
personalities to the nation as pioneers of various professional fields
of expertise.
Government takes over
After the school was vested in the Government, Rupa Nanayakkara
assumed duties as the first Principal, and many changes were effected
following State requirements. She developed the school in many avenues
during a period of 10 years. Nanayakkara developed the Advanced Level
Arts stream that had been introduced earlier to the school curriculum,
and started the Advanced Level Science stream to encourage the students
to continue their higher studies at Southlands itself. Accordingly, many
students entered the Medical College and the science faculties, and some
of them are serving as specialists today.
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Southlands
College, Galle |
Southlands became a popular school in the Southern Sri Lanka due to
continuous academic achievements throughout a long period and was
upgraded to an ‘A’ grade school in 1977, and further promoted to one of
the 18 National schools in 1984 during Mrs. Daniel’s period. Remarkable
progress was shown in the academic field as well as in many extra
curricular activities during the very fruitful period of 17 years when
Mrs. Daniel was Principal. Children participated in district and
island-wide academic competitions and extra curricular activities in
many fields alike bringing credit to the school winning gold, silver and
bronze medals many times. Southlands also became the best school in the
Southern Province gaining highest marks in the Advanced Level Science
Stream. Mrs. Daniel introduced Fine Arts and Commerce as subjects to the
Advanced Level examination and many students had the opportunity to
enter Universities in both streams. The school was able to maintain the
high standard of examination results in all streams continuously.
Academic excellence
Leelakanthi Gunawardena was the Principal from 1999 - 2005, and
several instances of academic excellence were recorded during her
period. Southlands College proudly itemize some of the academic
achievements by Southlanders in Government examinations continuously,
which brought honour to the school during this era. One student won the
first place in the Advanced Level examination in Commerce stream in 1999
and this record was maintained when another student gained the first
place in the same examination in the Arts stream in 2000. Such
performance of academic excellence seem to be pursued by emerging
generations when we proudly record the second and third places at the
Ordinary Level examination by Southlanders in 2003. Another Southlander
was able to secure the third place in the Advanced Level stream again,
in 2005.
Three other Southlanders displayed their colours to keep the school
flag flying high when they were able to secure third, fourth and seventh
place at the Ordinary Level Examination in 2009 bringing honour to their
Alma Mater when she is proudly celebrating her 125th anniversary in July
2010. Besides gaining the highest marks in the island, many students
were able to be among the highest mark achievers in all streams in the
Southern Province as well as in the Island throughout the years.
The Young Entrepreneur program was introduced to a few schools as a
pilot project in 1998 by the Education Ministry with the collaboration
of Junior Achievement International USA Southlanders participated in it
as a pioneer company and it became a popular society in the College.
They won nine awards at the ‘Young Entrepreneur Sri Lanka Presidential
awards’ in 1999 being the best company in several categories and was
chosen as the best school winning the highest number of awards at the
competition.
The Astronomical Society established in 1999 became popular in the
College.
Students of the science stream, too, won numerous awards during this
period. Within the scope of National Educational reforms for the
Advanced Level, they became the winner of the Environment Award in the
School Category for their project ‘Recycling Program Relevant to
Advanced Level Student’s Projects’ at the 59th Annual sessions of SLAAS
in December 2003 and the SLAAS Environment Award for the second time in
2007 for their project’. Low cost environmental friendly method of
removing oil from the surface of the sea’.
More achievements
The same group of students, guided by their teacher S. Surasena,
participated in the ‘Sri Lanka Science and Engineering Fare 2008’
jointly organized by the NSF, IESL, INTEL Sri Lanka and the Education
Department, and was selected the best group for their oil separation
project. Accordingly, the group of students along with their teacher
were fortunate to represent Sri Lanka at the ‘INTEL Inter National
Science and Engineering Fare 2009’ held in Reno, Nevada USA.
Two Southlanders won the All Island ‘National Australian Chemistry
Quiz Competition’ in 2003 gaining the highest marks. They were among the
students who gave the correct answers to all the questions at the
competition. Five Southlanders became the winners in the same
competition in 2004 again answering all the questions correct for the
second time too.
One student became the National Chess champion at the age of 15 when
she was crowned the youngest player to win the women’s title in Sri
Lanka in 2004. During this decade, many students represented the country
in several countries in net ball, table tennis, hockey, chess and
guiding. Another Southlander was chosen to represent the island at the
World Festival for Children in 2000 in Korea.
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