Visakha Vidyalaya (Colombo-Sri Lanka) News Letter

Hello Members!

As the Millennium ends we will be seeing some changes at the helm of Visakha. Mrs. M. N. Eddusuriya who has given us a devoted service for the last 11 years and nine months retired from service on the 4th October '99. (She celebrated her 60th birthday on the 5th October). We wish her happiness in her retirement and we record our deep appreciation of her selfless service over the years. We are grateful to her for her patience and co-operation extended to the VVOGA as Principal and President during her tenure of office, making it possible for us to actively assist the development and progress of the school, and organize the many varied programmes as fund raisers over the years. The students, staff , Old Girls, and the members of the SDS gave her a warm, emotional, flowery farewell.

THIS TRIBUTE TO A VERY SPECIAL PRINCIPAL IS WRITTEN BY SUMANA SAPARAMADU:

Mrs. Mercy Nalini Edussuriya, the 12th in the line of distinguished Principals beginning with Dr. Bernice T. Banning, took office as Principal of Visakha Vidyalaya on 1st January 1988.
Graduating from the University of Peradeniya in 1963, Mrs. Edussuriya, then Miss Rajapaksa like most women graduates of the time took to teaching, and soon afterwards obtained her Diploma in Education from the same University. Twelve years from her first appointment and only 36 years of age, Mrs. Edussuriya was selected by the Ministry of Education to fill the vacancy of Principal of Matale's prestigious Baptist Girls' School, popularly known as BMS Matale.
Miss Armand the revered Principal of BMS for 20 years died in 1975, and after her death, the Ministry had, on the request of the PTA changed the name of the school to Sri Sanghamitta Vidyalaya. It was a challenge to sit in Miss Armand's chair and continue from where she left, yet steering a different course in keeping with the new name and the new goals of education. A daunting task lay ahead of the young and inexperienced Principal. During her eight years at Sri Sanghamitta, Mrs. Edussuriya proved herself an able and level-headed administrator.
In 1983 Mrs. Edussuriya was transferred to the Staff College at Maharagama, now the National Institute of Education (NIE) where she was lecturer for a little over two years. In January 1986 she was appointed Principal of Devi Balika Vidyalaya but in September that same year she left for the UK on a British Council Scholarship.
Devi's loss was Visakha's gain. When Mrs. Edussuriya returned with a Master's degree in Education Planning and Management, the Ministry had already ear-marked her for Visakha. So she was "Principal-in-waiting": for 3 months, first at the Education Department's Green Path office and next at the Staff College.
Mrs. Edussuriya's 12 years less three months, at Visakha have been eventful years. Visakha celebrated her 75th anniversary in 1992. At the O/L examination in 1996 Visakha Vidyalaya had 100% passes, a rare achievement for any school. At A/L exams Visakhians have come first in the island in Science, Commerce or Arts, and in special subjects like English as at the '98 Examination.
Mrs. Edussuriya introduced the study of Japanese language into the curriculum and Visakhians who have shown proficiency in this subject have been invited annually to Japan. Mrs. Edussuriya accompanied the first batch of students to Japan.
A new version of the "Visakha Geeta Natakaya" was staged as part of the 75th anniversary celebrations and "Fiddler on the Roof" played to crowded houses on three consecutive night in 1998 was a near-professional performance.
Neatly groomed and always dressed in soft colours Mrs. Edussuriya is straight in her gait as in all her dealings with staff and students, parents and past pupils and the all powerful Ministry of Education. A sensible and caring Principal, conducting herself with quiet dignity, she won the affection and respect of her teachers, pupils, their parents and of old girls those who worked closely with her and those she got acquainted with at reunions and other occasions like the annual Pulimood Oration, also started during her tenure of office.
Besides serving on many Boards and Panels, Mrs. Edussuriya is chairman of the National Youth Awards Authority, and until last month was President of the Federation of the Alumni of Buddhist Schools.
Mrs. Edussuriya relinquishes office on Monday 4th October, the day before her 60th Birthday. She has been offered the post of Principal of the International School which will open shortly in Panadura, the home-town of our founder Mrs. Jeremias Dias.
Farewell Mrs. Edussuriya. May you be blessed with health and happiness and many more years to guide the education of girls in this country.

FAREWELL LUNCH: OUR LAST GATHERING FOR THIS CENTURY

14th November 99

A special is being organized at the HOTEL CEYLON INTERCONTINENTAL on Sunday 14th November to bid farewell to our Principal. This will be our last gathering for the Century (before the digital change). We urge our members to participate in their numbers to show our appreciation of an honourable Principal. To make it easier for our members to sit with their groups, we will be reserving all tables and seats so if you and your friends buy tickets from one book you will be sitting together at the lunch. Each table will seat ten. Vegetarians please notify by ticking the relevant box in the counterfoil when purchasing your ticket.

Tickets are priced at Rs.750/- (lunch only) and will be available at the Secretariat and at the gate from the 25th October. So do buy your tickets early and avoid disappointment. Sale of tickets will close on 12th November, or send a cheque made payable to the Visakha Vidyalaya Old girls' Association

Please indicate your choice of menu on the counterfoil of your ticket at the time of purchasing; Vegetarian/seafood/other

Don't miss this event of the year.......

INTRODUCING THE NEW PRINCIPAL

Mrs. R.M.L. Jayasekera assumed duties as the new Principal of Visakha on 5th October. She was Principal Sirimavo Bandaranaike Balika Vidyalaya, for many years and was responsible for building up and establishing this school as a National school. We welcome her and extend to her our cooperation and assistance to uphold and maintain the high standards of excellence at Visakha in all spheres of Education, Academic and extra curricular.

THE VISAKHA ARCHIVES

On the 4th of October at 5 p.m. Mrs,. Edussuriya completed her final official duty by declaring open the Visakha Archives. The idea of an archives was initiated by Maiosie de Silva with a donation of Rs. 5000/- and some valuable archival material for the project ten years ago.

Original registers from 1917 -1934 and old log books have been found and deposited in the archives. An original invitation sent out by our Founder inviting guests when the school shifted to its new premises at Visakha on Vajira Road in 1923 has also been found. We are in receipt of some valuable material and we invite our members to visit the archives some time. We thank our members for their kind donations of old certificates, programmes, Prize giving reports and photographs and articles collected by them during their school days.

The old collection is far from complete. We appreciate any material you can send us specially of the early periods and the Pulimood period.

If you wish to visit the Archives call 588229 ext. OGA room, between 9:00 and 11.30 am and speak to Roshi, Yaso, Gayanthika or Sandya.

A GIFT TO VISAKHA.....

The new 15 seater van was handed over to our President Mrs. Edussuriya on the 25th morning. The van is deep blue in colour and carries the Visakha Vidyalaya name on it in Gold letters with a legend of the donors. Our first visit was to the Vajiraramaya. We are happy to announce that the SDS has also presented the school with a 45 seater bus for the use of the children.

THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The day started with the visit to the Bodhi. After lighting the oil lamp, the Business meeting started with the reading of the minutes of the AGM of last year, the Secretary's report and the Treasurer's report. The President commented that the OGA had undertaken a lot of work in the last year and thanked them for their support. The new Executive Committee was elected and members settled down to celebrate the OGA's 65th Birthday.

Four very senior members of the OGA were invited to cut a delicious cake specially made for the occasion by one of our energetic old girls. The senior old girls: Mrs. Subadhra Wickremasinghe, from the first batch of students to join Visakha in 1917, Lakshmi Edirisinghe, Bona Lanerolle and Leela Wanigatunge and Mrs. Edussuriya did the honours, after which we all sang the birthday song. We were sorry Mrs Cicey Jayasinghe was not able to accept our invitation due to ill health.

The OGA also made presentations of appreciation to four members of the staff who had given long and devoted service to the school; Ms. Padma Punchihewa, (student and later Librarian) Ms. Nellie Roberts, Mrs. A. Wickremasinghe (Matron). The awards were made from the Clara Motwani Felicitation fund. There was a peaceful silence in the hall as we all tucked into the cake!!!

Our guest speakers, Anula and Shiva enlightened us on current threats to our very existence. Their selfless service was much appreciated by our members. We congratulate them for taking such lead roles in community matters and setting an example to others to be aware and assist the needy.

REUNION TRIP

The baby elephants at Pinnawela were delightful and the gardens at Peradeniya were most peaceful. We had a lovely time. We were sorry that more members couldn't be with us. A visiting member from abroad Analakshmi Chanmugam joined us on the trip. We were meeting her after a lapse of many years. We hosted 20 members of the Kandy branch and enjoyed the all too brief tete-a-tete. We returned to school around 7.00 p.m. happy and hoarse from all that singing.

EQUAL OPPORTUNTIES BILL

In the last few weeks the above Bill has caused much concern amongst the Public. The section on education and admission to leading Buddhist schools is one of them. These schools were established during the BUDDHIST REVIVAL primarily for the purpose of providing a Buddhist education to Buddhist children, who were compelled to attend Missionary schools, and even changed their religion to do so.

The Past Pupils Associations of Buddhist schools established before the schools take over in 1962, have got together to analyze the effects of this bill on the majority Buddhist population. The Consensus of opinion on this matter was that it should be challenged legally. As such several concerned organizations have got together to file petitions in the Supreme Court objecting to this bill. This action is to safeguard our rights in the interest of the future generations. We thank Mrs Hema Jayasinghe, Clodagh Fernando, Sumana Saparamadu and Sita Siriwardena for being signatories to the petitions on behalf of the VVOGA.

PULIMOOD ORATION

Our first event for the 1999-2000 session was the Pulimood Oration which was held on the 23rd of July. Many old girls and others had come to listen Dr. Malini Dias who had been encouraged to study Oriental languages by Mrs. Pulimood. Her curiosity aroused, she proceeded to study Sanskrit and developed an interest in Epigraphy, and so embarked on a highly specialized career. During her research she has discovered new historical evidence of the Anuradhapura period and more recently deciphered a stone sellipi which indicated the existence of a Port in Ambalantota. It appears that the King levied customs duty on all goods that were brought ashore from the ships that docked in this Port. So customs duty is apparently nothing new!

ESALA SIL PROGRAMME

It was indeed a day of retreat with a well thought out programme arranged by the religious activities sub committee. We were happy to see so many of our former teachers and present teachers. We had nearly 200 participants, some observed sil, some came to listen to bana, and some to assist. Our congratulations to the Religious activities sub committee on a job well done.

INTRODUCING THE NEW MEMBERS

Office Bearers:
Vice Presidents:	Sita Siriwardena	       Tele No; 596237
			Clodagh Fernando (Computer Centre)	583617
Secretaries:		Shanta Gunaratna (Newsletter)		588156
			Sandya Mutucumarana (Secretariat)	869365
Treasurers:		Ramya Cooray				865279
			Priyani Wijeratne			583610

Committee Members :

1.   Sumana Saparamadu			       Tele No; 829476
2.   Kamala Karunaratne
3.   Manthri Ramasamy (Education)			586715
4.   Sandya Bamunuwita					689169
5.   Gayanthika Fernando				598750
6.   Anoma de Silva (Social Activities)			927289
7.   Harshjini Jayasinghe				588125
8.   Saroja Siriwardena (Publicity)			074  744310
9.   Rukmali Jayasuriya
10.  Kumuduni Wickremasinghe				912458
11.  Theja Nanayakkara					501098
12.  Nilmini Wickremarachchi (Religious)		926317
13.  Ruvini Samarakoon					850998
14.  Felicia Weerawardena				853841
15.  Prabodha Arambage (staff) 				841175
16.  Renuka Dharmadasa (Tuckshop) 			874472
17.  Punsirini Malavi (Sports)				503756
18.  Renuka Gamage					645072
19.  Anoma Abeysinghe					328221
20.  Sunanda Alwis (Milk Room)				584003
21.  Chulani Panditharatna				910789
22.  Sandya Seneviratna					074 211641
23.  Champu Vidanapathirana		 		615254
24.  Manoja Waidyaratna				     	519715
25.  Sharika de Silva					075 513686

SOME ADVICE TO MEMBERS ON YEAR ONE ADMISSIONS

We advise our members who seek admission to the year one classes at Visakha, to be involved in the OGA activities well before your child is born. Direct donations are acknowledged only if they are made three years prior to the year of application for admission. In the three years immediately preceding the application for admission, the member must be actively involved with the school through the OGA. Service can be rendered in the form of professional services, and active participation in OGA functions, and fund raising projects. The number of years you have been at Visakha is also important. Your school record and activities count in the final analysis. So if you have been at Visakha only for a few years, and have no extra curricular activities and joined the OGA just before admissions are due, your chances are minimal in this very competitive exercise.

GAJAMAN NONA

This delightful play of the poetess from Matara and the Governor D'Oyle will go on boards in the near future with well known TV actors and actresses. When the play was first staged in 1975 the lead role of Gajaman Nona was played by Visakhian Rathmalie Gunasekera who brought to life the character of Gajaman Nona with a powerful rendering of her verses in the lyrical form. This was indeed an unforgettable performance.

This is the end of our Newsletter for the year 1999. Our next Newsletter will be in the year 2000. Remember the farewell lunch on the 14th November, and do come with your friends to reminisce on the years gone by. We can assure you a nostalgic and memorable afternoon.

So take care, and may the blessings of the Noble Triple Gem be with you.....

Editors : Shanta & Sandya

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