Grandeur of a dedicated Managing Directress

by Irangika Range

DEDICATION: In order to gift good citizen to society, she had utilised her efficiency and dedication to educate children. No doubt, this paved the way to earn many accolades to her credit.

She is Kumari Hapugalle Perera, Managing Directress of the Alethea International School in Dehiwela and She is top in her carrer today promoting the education of the children which is an integral part of a good nation.

She said that She joined Alethea when her father was a Managing Director of the School. At the time of joining she had just finished her A\L education at Bishop's College. Her father was Brigadier Denis Hapugalle who had taken control of the school after his mother. She said that her grandmother established the Alethea and She is Kathrin Hapugalle, one of the proficient educationist in the country.

Her grand mother was a teacher at the Museaus College and had worked with Museaus Hinngis, a founder of the Museaus College. Under her guidance and perseverance, Mrs.Katharin Hapugalle had started Alethea School in 1927. Kumari is descending from the third generation of the family and after her aunt and two elder cousins went abroad, she sacrificed her life to Alethea.

She said that her father wanted her services in a strong capacity and always taught her discipline and respectful living that helped her very much to transfer those qualities to enlighten the students" she said.

She has started her career at the lowest level of the school and sometimes she had to paint school furniture. "There should be a determined dedication and concern over the work and I had to look after all the tasks to keep up into the school in a pleasant manner.

"We need to update the work daily adhering to a timetable and an agenda to match both local and international schools," she said.

She said that the school is registered at the Department of Education as a secondary School since 1954. Aletheans had sat for the General Certificate of Education (Ordinary Level) in Sri Lanka since 1968 in Sinhala, Tamil and English medium. From 1983 it confined only to Sinhala and English mediums since all Tamil medium students opted to learn in the English medium.

In 1988,the school was divided into this segments and Alethea students sat for examinations conducted by the Department of Education and Alethea International students sat for British Boards of Education, Edexcel and Cambridge examinations.

Classes are conducted from Nursery to Advanced Level both in the local as well as the International Division. She said that the name Althea is synonymous to discipline and excellence in the classroom, in the stage or in the play ground or at home.

She said even though she wanted to involve in a different profession performing to home economic and business management. She said that she realized the values of this field later. "I built up my carrer as a teacher while doing higher studies.

I had followed the courses in Montessori and pre school education and also mastered in speech and drama and elocution while following the Executive Diploma in Business Management at the University of Colombo. I have also just finished my MBA, which is attached to the University of Wales. I also went to Israel to follow Early Childhood Education course at Haifa University in 1987.

She said that her knowledge contributed largely to handle the management, marketing, administration and physical and mental environment of children. Due to dedication and well planning it led her to be Managing Director of the Alethea in 1998. There were only 250 students in the school when she took over. She has been able to increase the numbers upto 1000. Facing many challenges and due to capability in her work, she has been able to develop school step by step by doing many infrastructure developments and introducing many facilities to the children.

"Although the class rooms are spacious, the number of students are limited to 30 in each class," she said. We believe that the high quality education is unable with large numbers. The children are my glory and trophy and the school is committed to lead towards success.

With the creative talents, and commitment of over 100 academic and non-academic teachers in the school, we are able to overcome challenges by offering best education to children. The teacher-pupil ratio is very high and it is 1-10 in both schools on various subjects. She said that she enjoys lot by participating many training programs on business management and the leadership.

She said that the Alethea is the pioneer of conducting quality circle program to promote high moral values of the students. Discipline is "a must" in all activities and students to gain more value addition as well. Respecting elders is our major theme. All students share every religion activities in the school.

She said her door is open always to children to talk their problems such as academic or personal. The staff is also very keen helping them.

She said that parents spend more money for tuition and we never encourage parents to send their children for tuition unless it is really competitive. "We ask always the parents to let the children to enjoy their childhood by involving extra curriculum activities to build up their character. Teachers here are really helpful to rectify children's weaknesses and they conduct extra class too.

Kumari married with Kavan Perera in 1984. He is a Printer by profession. They have two daughters who study at Alethea. She said they are very supportive. They always encourage her discussing various things. She has gained many achievements in her life and Women's Chamber of Industries and Commerce has awarded her the Merit Certificate under a large category at the women entrepreneur of the year 2002 to appreciating her skills and dedication.

"I always give priority to family values that I earned and as parents we should be well aware of responsibilities and countabilities. She said communication and having leisure talks with children and listening to them is very important. Apart from studies in the classroom we always allocate time to have such associations. Having gained 27 years working experience by running the school she expects to develop, introducing diversifying programs and new facilities for the benefit of children.