Government Science College, Matale

Mission

The school's mission is to provide educational opportunities for students from Mother Science College seeking help, in order to develop knowledge skills enabling them to lead productive lives.

History

This school was inaugurated on 15 February 1954. The original staff consisted of Mrs. Wimala Silva and Mr. S. Manual Pillai, while Mr. S. Rathnasabapathy was the principal.

The first half decade of Science College, truly reflects the personality and dedication of Mr. Rathnasabapathy. His philosophy was to advance the educational and environmental conditions of the college.

Although there were large schools in the Matale district when Science College was founded, there was an absence of a facility dedicated to promoting higher education in science. Mr. V.T. Nanayakkara, the Member of Parliament for the Matale electorate, recognized this deficiency, and set out to correct it. The result was GSC. The school was not limited to students of Matale district, but also accepted students from other districts such as Kandy, Kurunegala, Anuradhapura, Pollonnaruwa, Kegalle, Badulla, as well as the most remote district on the island, Jaffna. The students who studied here included Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim and Burgher.

In 1954, the school consisted of only 40 students and two staff members, however, by year's end the student population had risen to 90 students and the staff had increased to 4.

In the 1970s, the student population increased to 250, and today stands in excess of 500. During those first decades, the focus of the school was to promote as many students as possible to the university level. The success of this focus can be seen in the examination scores of the students, as well as the number of medical and engineer students accepted by universities.

In the 1960s, due to government policy of teaching science in both Sinhala and Tamil, Rathnasabapathy was required to transfer to Jaffna. This became a turning point for the school. The principal who succeeded Rathnasabapathy was Mr. H.R.P Rupasinghe, who brought with him an interest in sports, introducing cricket to the school. Since its introduction to the school, the students have proven successful in sports as well as academics, playing at a high level in cricket, Field hockey and netball.

Mr. Rupasinghe was followed by several other principals in the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1980s, the department of education made the decision to end O/L classes, accommodating only advanced level classes. This resulted in an increase in the number of students able to participate in higher education.

Currently, the college has a very strong and supportive "Past Pupils Association" (alumni), with branches in Colombo, Anuradapura, as well as in Australia. They assist the college in both its academic and sports endeavors.

Student Activities

Students are divided into three houses, named "Einstein", "Lavoisier" and "Darwin". In 2011, the school initiated a college band, called "Eastern Band". The school has 3 clubs, the Science Society, the Buddhist Society and the Interact Club.

Sports

GSC fields teams in three sports: cricket, netball, and chess.

Partial list of past cricket captains

1962 – Senerath Siyambalangamuwe 1963 – Lional Eramudugolla 1964 – Samantha Kulatunge 1965 – A.B.Uduwela 1966 – A.C.K.Herath 1967 – Priyalal Ranaweera 1968 – Wasantha Tennakoon 1979 – Ajantha Silva 2001/2 - Dimuthu Deewulla 2003 - Lakmal Madawattha 2004 - Ishan Ekanayake 2005 - Savindra Amaradasa 2006 - Janitha Hasaranga

School song

Composed by Mr. Thillekeratne, a teacher at GSC during the late 1970s, after an unsuccessful attempt to get a renowned songwriter in Sri Lanka to write it.

The song, in Sinhalese:
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 ........//

Principals

S. Ratnasabhapathy (1954–60)

H. R. P. Rupasinghe (1960–64)

E. P. W. Helapitage (1964–67)

H. D. E. Premawardhana (1967–69)

A. Bopitiya (1969–70)

L. M. Perera (1970–72)

C. A. S. B. Silva (1972–73)

L. M. Perera (1973–76)

K. B. Weragama (1976–80)

A. Ekanayake (1980–81)

R. B. Ekanayake (1981–85)

A. H. Godawitharana (1985–86)

A. Ekanayake (1986–90)

G. K. W. K. Atipola (1990 to present)