Uduvil Girls' College

Uduvil Girls' College (Tamil: உடுவில் மகளிர் கல்லூரி Uduvil Makalir Kallūri, UGC) is a girls private school in Uduvil, Sri Lanka.^[2][3] Founded in 1820 by American missionaries, it is one of Sri Lanka's oldest schools.^[4][5]

Uduvil Girls' College உடுவில் மகளிர் கல்லூரி
The college in the late 19th century
Location
Uduvil, Jaffna District , Northern Province Sri Lanka
Coordinates	9°44′04.40″N 80°00′57.70″E / 9.7345556°N 80.0160278°E / 9.7345556; 80.0160278
Information
Type	Private
Motto	The Truth shall make You Free
Religious affiliation(s)	Christianity
Denomination	Protestant
Founded	1824; 199 years ago (1824)
Founder	Harriet Winslow
School district	Valikaamam Education Zone
Authority	Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India^[1]
Principal	Miss Mathuramathy Kulendran
Grades	1-13
Number of students	~1,500
Language	Tamil, English
Houses	Agnew, Winslow, Howland, Bookwalter
Colour(s)	Blue, green, red, and yellow
Song	"Oh Uduvil! Dear Uduvil!"

History

See also: American Ceylon Mission and Batticotta Seminary

In 1816 American missionaries founded the American Ceylon Mission in Jaffna. The ACM established missions in other parts of the Jaffna peninsula including one in Vaddukoddai. The ACM established numerous schools on the peninsula, the first school being the Common Free School (Union College) in Tellippalai. In 1820 the Uduvil Seminary was established in Uduvil. It was situated in an abandoned Franciscan mission built by the Portuguese. Harriet Winslow (1796–1823), a missionary turned it into an all-girls boarding school in 1824. It was called Missionary Seminary and Female Central School. It was Asia's first all-girls boarding school.^{[citation needed]}

Uduvil has had eight principals at its helm. Eliza Agnew took over as principal after Harriet Winslow then followed by Susan Howland and Lulu Bookwalter, Uduvil's last American principal. Ariam Hudson Paramasamy was the first Sri Lankan principal, and was followed by Saraswathy Somasundaram in 1970 and Chelvi Selliah in 1982. She was followed by Cherry Mills.^[6] In her period the school had a great time with competitions. Uduvil's current principal is Suneetha Patricia Jebaratnam.

The school today

There are three specific units in the school namely, the Primary, Secondary and the Further Education Program. The secondary section prepares students for local examinations in the Tamil medium and English medium. The Further Education Program (FEP) aspires to strengthen students through skills development such as accounting, music, English and IT. The Eliza Agnew Business Processing Outsourcing Centre trains school leavers on online accounting and IT skills.

190th Anniversary

Uduvil Girls’ College celebrated its 190th anniversary in the year 2014.

See also

• List of schools in Northern Province, Sri Lanka

References

1. "Crisis At Uduvil Girls College, Jaffna – A Report". Colombo Telegraph. 11 September 2016. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
2. . Northern Provincial Council. 2010. Archived from the original on 2013-12-03.
3. (PDF). Schools Having Bilingual Education Programme. Ministry of Education. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-12-03.
4. Jayawardena, K.; Zakaria, R. (2016). Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World. Feminist Classics. Verso UK. p. 210. ISBN 978-1-78478-430-0. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
5. Development Assistance Programs of U.S. Non-profit Organizations in Bangladesh. TAICH country report. Technical Assistance Information Clearing House. 1974. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
6. Witness to the tsunami recounts harrowing tale

External links

 

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