Uduvil Girls' College

Uduvil Girls' College (Tamil: உடுவில் மகளிர் கல்லூரி Uduvil Makalir Kallūri, UGC) is a girls private school in Uduvil, Sri Lanka.^[1][2] Founded in 1820 by American missionaries, it is one of Sri Lanka's oldest schools.

History

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.

Uduvil has had eight principals at its helm and stands as proud witness to the high ideals and worthy missionary heritage . Eliza Agnew took over as principal after Mrs.Harriet Winslow then followed Miss Susan Howland and Miss Lulu Bookwalter- Uduvil's last American principal. Miss Ariam Hudson Paramasamy- our first national principal was followed by Mrs.Saraswathy Somasundaram in 1970 and by Ms. Chelvi Selliah in 1982. She was followed by Mrs. Cherry Mills^[3]In her period the school had a great time with competitions. After that Uduvil's current principal Mrs. Suneetha Patricia Jebaratnam.

Vision

To impart a whole some education that would equip students to succeed in the career paths they choose and to instill values that help them work towards building a society based on peace and justice.

Mission

• To help students avail themselves of modern trends in education including English language and IT skills and to provide updated facilities for these in the school.
• To encourage students to steer away from a totally exam oriented outlook, towards a study pattern that requires wide reading, critical thinking and research.
• To empower girl children to be more self assertive and to question and address the limitations they face in society.
• To give access to students from poor backgrounds especially in the primary section of the school, recognizing that when children fail to get the basics of a good education, they are kept forever at a disadvantage.
• To equip children with skills and knowledge that would help them overcome the bitterness and obstacles they have faced during the hard years of war.

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

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Uduvil Girls' College.