Mahamaya Girls' College turns 80

by Upananda JAYASUNDARA - Kandy Sports Special Cor

Mahamaya Girls' College, Kandy completes 80 years on January 14. On January 14, 1932 amidst the chanting of Pirith, Lewke Ratwatte Kumarihamy cut the ribbon at the auspicious time of 10.25.

Then her granddaughter, five-year-old Amara Ratwatte, walked into the school with her father. Thereafter, Hilda Kularatne, the first principal of the new school and their teacher's, Eva de Mel, Karunawathie Gunaratne, Seelawathie Thambugala and two pupil teachers followed. Sixteen pupils were admitted on that first day.

At the opening ceremony, Sarah Soysa, the leader of the 'Kulangana Samithiya', acknowledged Bhikkhu Attadassi's contribution when she said that the idea of founding a Buddhist Girls' School had been given by him. Ten students and three teachers were admitted to the school boarding, which was located in a part of West Cliffe House.

Sarah Soysa was entrusted with the management and supervision of the hostel. The Principal and her family were accommodated in another section of this building. Hilda Westbrooke Kularatne was married to P. de S. Kularatne, a brilliant academic and nationalist, who was the Principal of Ananda College, Colombo. Hilda tried to do for the Kandy Buddhist School, what her husband tried to achieve at Ananda College and also at Dharmaraja College.

On August 27, 1932, at an auspicious time, heralded by the blowing of the conch shell and playing of 'Magul Bera', the new two storeyed school building was formally opened by the Governor of Ceylon, Sir Greame Thompson and Lady Thompson. Hilda Kularatne resigned at the end of 1932 when her husband went back to Ananda College. Then the 'Kulangana Samithiya' appointed Bertha Irene Rodgers as the Principal of the school in 1937.

On May 1, 1951, Soma Gunawardena was appointed the Principal of Mahamaya and she was a strong disciplinarian. She brought the school together with the principal as the head, giving leadership. Even while revitalising religious education at Mahamaya and reinforcing its Buddhist foundations, Soma Gunawardena reoriented the school, to produce students to compete with students of the best educational institutions in the country.

On December 1, 1960, Mahamaya Girls College, a school established by Buddhist women under difficult circumstances and nurtured with much hard work and sacrifice by both the founders and the principals, was taken over for administration as a State school.

On January 17, 1972, the Department of Education appointed Lalitha Abeysinghe Fernando to succeed Soma Gunawardena as Principal of Mahamaya when Lalitha Fernando retired in 1980, the Deputy Principal, Mrs. D. Perera carried on the work till Navarathne Kumari Pilapitiya popularly known as Nita Pilapitiya took over the school as the next Principal. Nita Pilapitiya was quick to comprehend the new trends in the educational field and she took rapid measures to protect Mahamaya's interests.

Mahamaya's excellent performance in the academic field and in other spheres such as sports and aesthetics and its public image as a national school in the Central Province helped greatly to get the necessary funds voted for the building of the auditorium.

The Education Department appointed Muriel Subasinghe as Principal on August 15, 1990. By the 1990s, there was tremendous pressure to enter Mahamaya College and there was a significant expansion in the number of students.The Department of Education build a five-storeyed complex of classrooms to accommodate the vast numbers, a sports complex for indoor games - badminton and table tennis, was built during this time.

Mahamaya had a further change of Principals when Indra Kumari Ratnayake took over the school on July 10, 1995.

To deal with the tremendous expansion of student numbers during this period the Education Department built a new three-storeyed building housing three junior laboratories and eight classrooms.

To accommodate the growing numbers joining Mahamaya from other districts in the country the Education Department also constructed a new three-storeyed building for the hostel.

On April 24, 2000, Bandaramenike Wijesinghe took over as the Principal of Mahamaya. She framed a program of intensive English training for her pupils and Mahamaya has put into effect the new educational reforms with a science stream in English and a successful Grade One program in spoken English.

Mahamaya College holds its own in academic, sports and aesthetics fields. In 2001, Mahamaya had the best examination results in the Central Province with the highest number of passes in both the GCE O/L and A/L Examinations In the year 2000 for the GCE O/L Examination 326 candidates were presented and 324 were successful. At the 2002, GCE A\Ls two students came first in the island in the bioscience and commerce streams.

On sports, including swimming and athletics, Mahamaya has won many all-island events and many students have established national records and participated in international events with success.

In July, 2005 Indra Withanachchi took over as Principal of Mahamaya Girls College

The school like other National schools, has a high percentage of students of high scholastic ability from all areas of Sri Lanka, including outstanding students from the economically backward districts.

Mahamaya is an institution totally Buddhist in outlook that aimed to train the girls in a Buddhist atmosphere in Buddhist principles and values, while at the same time teaching them English and Western social accomplishments, and introducing them to Western culture.

After the retirement of Bandaramenike Wijesinghe in 2005, an old girl of Mahamaya, the Deputy Principal Visakha Herath was the Acting Principal from April 20, 2005 upto July, 2005.

The present Principal, Indra Withanachchi with the assistance of her staff of 189 will be able to maintain the academic standards of the school at university level.On January 14, Mahamaya Girls College will complete 80 years and we wish all the very best for the principal, staff and students!