Cyril Jansz and Emelia Jansz:

The pioneers of English education

by L. Panditharathna

Two pioneers of English education were Cyril A. Jansz and Emelia Jansz who created generations of English educated people from St. John's College, Panadura, at a time when English education was not freely available.

In 1796, Governor Fredric North reorganised the Parish School System which was introduced by the Dutch. In 1834, as a result of the policy of giving better status and recognition to English education, the above schools too became English schools.

In 1841 the Central Schools Commission was appointed for the administration of the schools.

Cyril A. Jansz

Emelia Jansz

Accordingly, a system of State Basic Schools for English Education was introduced and the Panadura St. John's College was one of them.

The British Government appointed the Colebrook Commission to study the feasibility of orienting the Sri Lankans for the civil service.

Language gap

An important recommendation was that "there was a language gap between the British rulers and their subjects in Sri Lanka and as such the British government should directly get involved in the promotion of English education".

Another pertinent recommendation was that only those competent in English should be recruited to the Government service.

The recommendations of the Colebrook Commission promoted the establishment of State Basic Schools for English.Some of the earliest schools of the Christian Missionaries were S. Thomas' College, Mt. Lavina (1876), St. Benedict's College, Colombo (1868), St. Michael's College, Jaffna (1872), Jaffna Central College (1870), Wesley College, Colombo (1872) and St. John's College, Panadura (1832).

The British got involved in the World War and could not attend to the welfare needs of the country. Hence, they handed over all state schools to the missionaries.

St. John's College was handed over to an Evangelist religious organisation called the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG)

The school with about 70 students was housed in the Anglican Church situated by the Panadura river.

Anglican devotee

In 1876 Suthan de Zoysa, an Anglican devotee of the church constructed a new building for the church and shifted the school to another site away from the school. That was the St. John's Boys' School.

The church was consecrated and opened by Governor Sir William Gregory on June 14, 1876.

The SPG faced a financial crisis and could not look into the needs of the school which led the teaching staff to leave. A deputation of parents led by judges and lawyers of the Panadura Courts met the Colombo Bishop and negotiated for the creation of a fund to run the school and requested the school to be transferred to Cyril A. Jansz (Snr.) the then principal.

The Bishop agreed and Jansz became the owner of the school from June 1882.

The first move of Jansz was to pay a courtesy call to the Vadheebasinghe Ven. Migettuwatte Gunananda thera's temple and pledge that his mission was not to promote Christianity but English education.

He assured that he would treat all students belonging to various religions and nationalities alike without any discrimination and requested the blessings of the Buddhist clergy and laity.

Support

The Thera was highly pleased and assured Jansz his support in running the school. Later, the thera became a friend of Jansz.

With Jansz becoming the owner, manager and principal of St. John's College a new ray of hope dawned upon the people of Panadura and their children.

After the take over Jansz had an uphill task to put up the buildings and infrastructure for the expansion of the school.

The school housed in a temporary building with 82 students in 1882 grew rapidly and by 1886 had 150 students with seven teachers.

In 1886 Jansz married Emelia Jansz from Tangalle. Mrs. Jansz too was an educationist.

She started English classes for girls, initially with two girls studying at her old house. Her class became very popular and in 1887 she had to put up a building for a girls' school.

Residence

In 1902 Jansz purchased a block of land at Udahamulla with an old house and made it their residence. In 1903 he built a house and the old building was converted to a boys' hostel.

In 1915 St. John's School developed rapidly and had a primary, boys' school, girls' school and a college for higher forms.

By 1924 there were 1400 students. Jansz was a disciplinarian. He was concerned about the welfare of his students. He was sympathetic to poor students and provided them free education with food and lodging.

The Johnian Girls' of St. John's Girls' School will launch a walk on June 15 to commemorate Cyril A. Jansz and Mrs. Emelia Jansz for their great contributions to English education in Sri Lanka.