Sri Palee College
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| Sri Palee College | |
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| Motto: | Maa Niwaththa Abhikkama |
| Established: | 1934 |
| Type: | Public School |
| Principal: | Luxman Jayakody |
| Students: | over 3500 |
| Location: | Horana, Sri Lanka  |
| Colors: | Maroon and Gold |
| Website: | www.sripaleecollege.lk |
Sripalee College, Horana is one of the main mixed schools in Sri Lanka. The current population of students of Sripalee is over 3,500. There are classes from kindergarten to university entrance.
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[edit] History
On May 20, 1934, under the wishful patronage of Mr. Wilmot A. Perera, a prominent revolutionary educationist / politician of Sri Lanka, Sripalee (place where the goddess of fine arts lives) stared by Guru Dev Rabindranath Tagore a great writer / artist / educationist of India as a model of his famous university at Shanthi Niketan later called Visva Bharathi University .
At present, the principal and 140 number of academic staff and 20 number of non-academic staff is serving on behalf of Sripalee College. Present education medium is Sinhala and recently English medium classes also started. At the same time English is taught as secondary language in all other classes. At present Sripalee is like any other government school in the island and subjects are taught according to the government curriculum. But Sripalee still creates people with artistic abilities. At the same time science, maths and commerce streams are well developed.
[edit] College founder
The founder of Sri Palee College was a proprietor planter Wilmot A. Perera. His father was Abraham Perera who was known as the King of Rubber in Raigam and Pasdun Korales and was the richest person in the area as he got a massive income through rubber due to agreement between an English company and him. Wilmot Perera was born on 12 June 1905. First he was educated at Cyril Jansze College at Panadura and later at Royal College – Colombo. He initially thought of studying archaeology after his education, but after his father's demise he had to be a planter. Within a short period he become a successful planter and was married to a lady from rich family in Galle.
As a planter he had to mingle with ordinary people and labourers in estates and the people in surrounding area. There he could clearly see the grievances of poor people and their struggle to live. He truly felt sorry for these people and made extensive surveys to discover the reasons for their difficulties. As a result, he wrote the book “Problems of Rural Ceylon”. To find solutions for these problems he established first a rural development society in Raigam Korale. He also believed in free education to the sons and daughters of the poor. To make all his ideas a reality he established Sri Palee College at Horana in Sri Lanka on the pattern of Shanthi Niketan in West Bengal (India). He was the first to start a midday meal to pupils.
As a leftist, Wilmot Perera was involved in the “suriyamal” movement during the World War II period and later became a Member of Parliament for the Matugama electorate in the 1947 general election and he won the same electorate in 1952 also. In 1957 he became the first Sri Lankan ambassador to China. He was the chairman of the Wilmot A. Perera salary's commission. He passed away in 1973.
[edit] Upasanaya / Assembly
This is a unique tradition of the Sripalee College . Students of the college come for the Assembly which is held in an open place with a small stage and surrounded by large trees called Upasana Maluwa [assembly ground]. After the assembly pupils walk as upasana perahara [Assembly procession] through the road around the upasana maluwa. In this perahara they walk four pupils in a raw, singing school songs. At the end of the upasana perahara, pupils stop above the upasana maluwa , in front of the Nimaline hall (school office) and sing the national anthem. After national anthem they go to their classes.
