| Government Science College Matale | |
|---|---|
| Motto | Vidhya Pragupthan Dhanan "Science For Progress" |
| Established | 1954 |
| Type | Mixed government school |
| Principal | Mr. G. K. W. K. Atipola |
| Students | near 500 |
| Grades | 10–13 |
| Location | Matale, Sri Lanka |
| Website | Official Website |
Government Science College, Matale ( GSC ) ( Sinhala : රජයේ විද්යා විද්යාලය ) is a mixed government secondary school located in Matale, Sri Lanka. It is a well known school for its academic performances. Although it has about 50 years of history, it has become a prestigious academic institute in the country.
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The school's mission is to bestow perfect educational opportunities for the students who come seeking for help from Mother Science College, So as to create real patriotic citizens with knowledge skills and attitudes in turn to make them lead a realistic, desired and pleasant life.
This school was inaugurated on 15 February 1954 with Mrs. Wimala Silva, Mr. S. Manual Pillai as staff members and Mr. S. Rathnasabapathy as the principal.
This simple sentence is the log entry made by Mr. Rathnasabapathy as the principal pertaining to the opening ceremony which does not show protocol of guest and pageantry. The first half decade of science college, truly reflects great personality of Mr. Rathnasabapathy and his dedication. He invested to promote educational and environmental conditions of the college.
Although there were many big schools in Matale district when Science College was started, facilitate higher education in science that were not available in those schools. Mr. V.T. Nanayakkara, then the member of parliament for Matale electorate, had seen this defeciency, made effect to fulfill it and he did. This school was not limited to students of Matale district, but cater for other districts such as Kandy, Kurunegala, Anuradhapura, Pollonnaruwa, Kegalle, Badulla and the most remote Jaffna district in the island. The students who studied here were not only Sinhalese but all other communities who live in Sri Lanka such as Tamil, Muslim and Burgher.
In 1954, there were only 40 students and two staff members at the beginning. The year ended with 90 students and 4 members of staff, making all staff members were Tamil.
In the decade of the seventies, the student population had been increased in to 250 and today it is over 500. At the first decade of the college history the principal and the staff made their untiring effort to take all the clever students to one vessel and push them to university. The result of this effort were to be seen when one goes through the past results of examinations. where number of medical and engineer students had been selected to university, revealing the dedication of the principal Mr. Rathnasabapathy and the staff.
It is revealed that there is no difference between home and office for Mr. Rathnasabapathy, when he works he cares not day and night even in vacation he doesn't go to Jaffna, but he works. He works somewhere in the college.
In the 1960s due to the government policy in the education system of teaching science in Sinhala and Tamil Mr. Rathnasabapathy had to go on transfer to jaffna. This was a turning point. The principal who succeeded in was Mr. H.R.P Rupasinghe who was very much interested in sports and introduced cricket to the school. This proved that students who were put on academic track excelled in sports too. They brought fame to school in cricket, hockey and netball.
After Mr. Rupasinghe Mr. E.P.W Helapitage Mr. H.D. Premawardana and Mr. A. Bopitiya served as principals and carried on their services for the benefit of the college. In the 1980s a past pupil of the college Mr. A Ekenayake took reign as the principal and he was succeeded by Mr. E.M.R.B Ekanayake and Mr. Godawitharane. During this period the department of education took a decision to do away with O/L classes and to accommodate only the advanced level classes making room for a large number of students to keep up with higher education.
From 1990 another very eminent past pupil Mr. G.K.W.K Ettipola was posted as the principal and he was successful in regaining the lost forms to the school. During his tenure he is being supported by a good number of past pupils as members of the staff, and it is a blessing that the rest of staff members extended their fullest corporation.
The college now has a very strong and supportive past pupils association which has its branches in Colombo, Anuradapura, and in Australia. They help the college in all her endeavors and watch the interests keenly both in academic and the sports fields.
Here is a list of prominent past pupils of Science College (Please edit this list, add more names)
@College Band-
Eastern Band (Boys) 2011 First Batch
Students are divided into three houses as,
The past pupils' association of Government Science College Matale has extended its maximum cooperation and dedication to the improvement of the school in all possible ways. Currently it has branches in Colombo, Anuradhapura and Australia. PPA Colombo branch launched its official web site, http://www.gscmataleppacol.org/[1] on 1 March 2009.
vidu viduhal maathaa sarade
Sri Lanka dharanee thalaye
pathuraa vidu nena lo pathale
karanemu guna gaayana obage
ran rathu alu paha gath dhaja sevene
sohoyuru premen ek sith badune
sisu kala sama sip sayurehi gilva
veera puthun oba janitha karannaaa
vidu viduhal maathaa sarade.......//
nawa lokayakata pera maga penwaa
sisu kala vidu nuwanin neth pahadaa
apa rata diyune peramuna gannaa
weera puthun oba janitha karannaa
vidu viduhal maathaa sarade.......//
In Sinhala letters
විදුහල් ගීය.
විදු විදුහල් මාතා සැරදේ ශ්රී ලංකා ධරණී තලයේ
පතුරා විදු නැණ ලෝ පතලේ කරනෙමු ගුණ ගායන ඔබගේ ..//
රන් රතු අලු පැහැ ගත් ධජ සෙවනේ
සොහොයුරු ප්රේමෙන් එක් සිත් බැඳුනේ
සිසු කැල සැම සිප් සයුරෙහි ගිල්වා
වීර පුතුන් ඔබ ජනිත කරන්නා
විදු විදුහල් මාතා සැරදේ ........//
නව ලෝකයකට පෙර මඟ පෙන්වා
සිසු කැල විදු නුවනින් නෙත් පහදා
අප රට දියුනේ පෙරමුණ ගන්නා
වීර පුතුන් ඔබ ජනිත කරන්නා
විදු විදුහල් මාතා සැරදේ ........//
(This song was originally composed by Mr. Thillekeratne, a teacher of GSC in late 1970s, on his way home from Colombo after an unsuccessful attempt to get it done by a renown song writer in Sri Lanka. At that time the song started as sarada vidu viduhal maathaa...)