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| Sunday, 5 January 2003 |
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Musaeus celebrates 109 years Musaeus College founded in 1893, celebrated its 109th year in November last year. The history of the school dates back to November, 1891 when Marie Musaeus Higgins arrived in then Ceylon to take over Sangamitta Girls' School. This was in response to an advertisement in a United States magazine calling for a woman principal for a Buddhist girls' school. This was due to the efforts of philanthropists like Peter de Abrew and his father William de Abrew who felt the need for a good school for the education of Sinhala Buddhist girls in the metropolis. Consequently, it was Marie Musaeus Higgins who visualised this need having closely studied the history, traditions and culture of Sinhala people and realised to what extent such values had been eroded by colonialism. Thus with the benevolence of the Abrews who donated the land, Musaeus College was born in 1893 at Rosmead Place, as a small `mud hut'. In doing so Higgins overcame such constraints like the lack of decent buildings in imparting an education to girls, built on the foundation of a Buddhist way of life based on simplicity and high principles. The school she started with only 12 students with much of the classrooms, the hostel and principal's quarters in the mud hut, that today stands out like a monument. A new permanent building for the school, donated by Wilton Hack in 1895 carrying Mrs. Marie Musaeus Higgins vision of imparting a national education entrenched in the rich traditions of Ceylon and its cultural heritage. This helped create a national feeling among the Sinhala students. And though the medium of instruction was English, teaching of the Sinhala Language, its literature, music, drama, and home science were given equal weightage. Higgins was able to instill such noble qualities like obedience and respect for elders and authority, compassion, kindness and humility while at the same time making gradual changes realising the value of the traditional dress, and use of the Sinhala identity. This enabled Musaeus students to receive an education with an excellent cultural background which has over the years been instilled in the next generations. Towards this end Higgins considered history as the core of girls' education. Significantly, though British history was taught as a subject in the national curriculum, Higgins took Lankan history to her students through her own books written in English and translated into Sinhala through dramas like Viharamahadevi, Unmada Chitra and Pandukabhaya which became an annual feature on Founders' Day. She stressed the nature of the great women, imbibing in the students a sense of pride in their history. Students were schooled in English Literature which was a big subject as much as Physiology, Arithmetic, Basic Science and Geography through which a sense of the world was created in students. The work books the Marie Musaeus Higgins used and her methodology could be examples to the teacher of today. Stress was laid on good handwriting while piano forte lessons were made available to students desirous of learning singing and the art and painting and needlework and crochet were woven into the lives of students at Musaeus. Its record of success is reflected in the fact that students sat and passed successfully the Junior and Senior Cambridge Examinations as early as 1897. If Higgins Musaeus converted the school into what it is by way of education, the names of the Abrews and De Silvas are also synonymous in its development. Peter Abrew was the longest serving trustee for over a quarter century while Dr. G. C. I. de Silva managed the school as trustee for 25 years. His son Chandima, who was Managing Trustee till recently, served 18 long years. Today, with a 6,500 strong student population, Musaeus College is one of the oldest if not the oldest girls' Buddhist institution in Sri Lanka which will soon have a modern auditorium and swimming pool where the students have excelled in the field of sports. It also has a nursery and primary school. Some of the students who have brought fame to Musaeus in the field of sports are Tehani Guruge (squash), U.K. Dharmadasa and A. Wijesuriya (swimming), I. Ranawickrema (athletics), S. Peiris (netball), U. Manapperuma (swimming) and R. Dissanayake (chess), all of whom were awarded school and national colours. |
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