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A high seat of learning in the hill country

by Ranga Chandrarathne

It was dusk, when we reached Gurutalawa and I was rather fascinated by the sight of the little English Chapel with a cross at the top of a stone pillar. The Chapel was dedicated to S. Francis of Assisi, and serves as a welcome post to the very Christian school. I felt as if I was suddenly in an English county, surrounded by fir, as silent as a sleeping wood, whose silence is only disturbed by the sounds of crickets and wild bats that started to ply over the areas by dusk.

According to the present Head Master, E. G. J. Kanagasabe, the school was set up by shifting classes from the S. Thomas' at Mount Lavinia in the face of Japanese attacks on Colombo during World War 11.

In the East, when the threat of war shifted to the Indian Ocean with the advance of the Imperialist military forces of Japan, Ceylon as the Island was then known, and Trincomalee harbour, became strategic objectives under imminent attack.

The College at Mount Lavinia was consequently requisitioned by the British forces and on April 9, 1942 Dr. H. L. Hayman, the Sub-Warden was sent to Gurutalawa to prepare a branch for the school, but days before, on April 5, Colombo was subject to an air raid and a Japanese plane had actually crashed in the College premises at Mt. Lavinia.

Fortunately a magnificent Farm at Gurutalawa was gifted by Mr. Leslie de Saram (a Royalist) and Mrs. De Saram, in 1942. Nestled in the hills below Nuwara Eliya (6700ft) was The Farm, at an elevation of 4000ft, redolent with fruit of every variety, and the livestock included a herd of over 100 Persian Black Head sheep, a rarity in 'Ceylon'.

It had a central Farm Bungalow, and a spattering of out houses and farm buildings in an area of over 32 acres. These proved adequate to house a complement of 55 boarders (in the main Bangalow) and 9 staff members of whom Dr. R. L. Hayman was Headmaster and Rev. A. J. Foster the Chaplain.

Both Oxford men, the one Dr. Hayman, M. A., D.Phil (Oxon) and Rev. Foster, M. A.(Oxon), who had stamped their mark as extraordinary men and teachers at S. Thomas' Mount Lavinia in the 1930's, and now went on to imbue the school at Gurutalawa, with a value system in selfless service, and to establish a tradition of Excellence, making the school the most sought after in the whole Island.

Mr. Leslie De Saram and his Farm Manager, Mr. Isaacs, helped immensely in the preparations. When a plaque with the names of Mr. & Mrs. De Saram was placed at the College entrance, they insisted that it should state 'two well wishers' so it reads "The Farm is the gift to STC from two well wishers, of the College, April 1942".

The first session started in the 2nd term on May 2, 1942, with two day-boys also on the roll. The curriculum for the Middle and Upper School in those years was a formal academic one, taught in most of the English schools at the time.

The subjects were Divinity, English Language and Literature, Latin, Vernacular Greek, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Geography, Classical History and Mathematics in the form of Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry and Trigonometry.

Games were compulsory, and Cricket and Soccer were played in makeshift conditions outside the Farm boundaries, about 1 1/2 miles distance off patana with a panoramic view of the Haputale gap and the South face of the central hill massif which peaked at Pidurutalagala.

Part of the main school from Mount Lavinia also shifted to Getambe on the Peradeniya/Kandy Road, and later in the year the Board decided to expand Gurutalawa to accommodate a further 150 boys from the Getambe 'branch'. Accordingly, in 1944, the school buildings were extended and the Gurutalawa boys engaged in "shramadana" to prepare the land in front of the Farm Bungalow, towards this end. A new set of buildings was constructed away from the bangalow, which became the senior dormitories.

The shift took place in 1945, and the Boarding was constituted into three Houses-Garnier, De Saram and Read. In September of the year, Dr. Hayman and Canon Foster left on furlough with the end of the war in Europe, and in December the Chapel dedicated to S. Francis of Assisi, was completed as an extension to the newly built Junior dormitories.

This formed a square, with a flank of the Farm Bungalow providing the base, for the making of the traditional public school "quadrangle". The buildings were of stone, quarried from the surrounding environs, and were designed by Mr. Shirley D' Alwis, the University Architect.

Currently, the student population at the school consists of both boarders and day scholars. Apart from many extra-curricular activities including sports and diverse students' societies, Information Technology has been introduced with the donation of computers by an old boy domiciled in Switzerland.

The staff, in addition to tuition classes to prepare students for examinations, conducts extra-classes free of charge on students' requests. Any student irrespective of whether he is a day scholar or a boarder could attend extra-classes or tuition classes. Another speciality in the pedagogic studies is the national integration program where Sinhala students are encouraged to acquire a fair knowledge of Tamil language, and Tamil students Sinhala language.

"What I found was that Tamil students are better at picking up Sinhala than Sinhala students who often found it a little bit difficult to pick up Tamil", said a teacher. However, the objective of the program is to impart a fair knowledge of both languages, so as to bridge the communication gap between the two communities. The school maintains a 1-8 teacher-student ratio, in order to give more individual attention to students and to maintain a high standard of education.

"A comprehensive education S. Thomas at Gurutalawa is famous for its qualitative and comprehensive education that prepares students not only for a lucrative career locally and internationally, but also for life.

It is this unique combination of pedagogic knowledge and moral values inculcated in students, that makes them outstanding in life and in their chosen careers. School conducts classes in two sessions. The students' day at the hostel starts at 5 o'clock in the morning and after a shower, the students observe their own religions.

At 5.45 a.m. prep bell is rung, indicating the students to go to the prep hall for studies and start work at 6 o'clock. For junior students, studies finish at 7 o' clock and it is 7.15 a.m. for senior students.

At 7.30 a.m students are served breakfast and the morning session starts at 8.00 a.m. At 10.00 a.m is the interval for students and they are served tea. From 10.20 to 12.20 classes are conducted, and from 12.20 p.m. to 1.00 pm is the lunch-break. The second session starts at 12.40 p.m. and following the lunch are two periods from 1.00 p.m. to 1.40 p.m. and 1.40 p.m. to 2.20 pm. The ordinary session of the school ends at 2.20 p.m.

On normal days, from 2.20 p.m. to 3.20 p.m., either tuition classes or free classes are conducted. Students are served tea from 3.00 p.m. to 3.20 p.m.

Then the students go into the playground, and unless a student is sick, it is compulsory for them to engage in sports and this goes on till 5.30 p.m. Thereafter, students go to prep hall for studies, and the evening session of studies for juniors goes on from 6.00 p.m. to 7.15 p.m., and from 6.00 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. for senior students.

The students are served dinner around 8.00 p.m. and they retire to their dormitories for dorm-rest and they go for worship at 8.30 p.m. and thereafter to bed.

One of the most striking features of the students' life at Gurutalawa is the multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-National environment, in which the students grow up, understanding one another's culture.

This would be further enhanced by the student exchange programme that the school started with schools in United Kingdom, and also in other countries. Classes are conducted in three media, Sinhala, English and Tamil. Among the host of the students' activities are various students' societies, in addition to holiday camps conducted during school vacations.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.