Hameed Al Husseinie College

History

The college began as a school, the Al Madrasathul Khairiyyathul Islamiah. Founded by Marhoom Sidde Lebbe, Marhoom Wapichi Marikkar and Marhoom Ahmed Orabi Pasha, at the school's opening ceremony on 15 November 1884, Ahmed Orabi made a speech on the importance of the new school to Sri Lanka's Muslim community. The Muslim community was not willing to enter into the modern education system introduced in the19th century, for several reasons. One was that most of the schools were established and controlled by the Christian missionaries. The traditional and conservative Muslims had the fear that English education may lead their children to Christianity, as they witnessed in Sinhalese and Tamil communities.[3] Hence, Siddi Lebbe wanted to establish separate schools for Muslims as did the Buddhist and Hindu revivalists. His dream was realised in November 1884 with the establishment of the first Muslim English school in this country - 'AL Madurasathul Khairiyyatul Islamiah' in Colombo.

In 1901 Noordeen Hadjiar, trustee of the Grand Mosque, built a new building for the school using his own funds as a monument to the Silver Jubilee Celebrations of Abdul Hamid II, the Ottoman Sultan, and renamed the school Al Madrasathul Hameediah. In the same year a farewell ceremony was held for Orabi at the school premises to mark his departure from Ceylon to Egypt. In 1921, the school was again renamed as Hameediah Boys' English School.

During this same period, The Ceylon Moslem Educational Society Ltd. was founded in 1919 with the objective of looking after the educational needs of the Muslim community. The first school founded by the society was in Hulftsdrop Street and was called Akbar School. Later the members of the society bought the property at 45 Husseiniya Street (then called Kuruwe Street) and the school was shifted there in 1919 and named Husseinie Boys’ English School.

In 1961 the school was amalgamated with the nearby Husseinie Boys' English School under the new name Hameed Al Husseinie Maha Vidyalaya by Badiudin Mahmud, the Minister of Education. On 29 August 1972, government ministers Pieter Keuneman and Badiudin Mahmud visited the school and unveiled a new five-storey building block and a three-storey science section. These buildings were completed in 1982 and the then Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa visited the school and declared it open on 3 June 1982 by the invitation of then Minister of Education Ranil Wickremasinghe.

The school was officially granted college status in 1991, and was renamed Hameed Al Husseinie College. It was elevated to a National School on July 26, 1996.

Present Educational Activities

Hameed Al Husseinie College, as per Education Ministry classification, is a 1AB category National School. Presently, it has classes from Grade 1 up to Grade 13 with over 2700 students. The subjects are taught in Sinhala and Tamil language, with English taught as the second language. The Advanced Level stream is divided into four streams – Maths,Science,Commerce and Arts. The Science Section includes biology, chemistry, physics, combined maths, higher maths, and general English, while the Commerce and Arts Section includes information technology, economics, business studies, business statistics, accounting, Islamic civilization, Islam, political science, geography and general English..

Sports

Sporting events are held throughout the year including the Inter-House Sports Festival. The college offers sports such as soccer, cricket, Karate, swimming and boxing.

The college has hosted the annual Invitation Schools Soccer Championship for the Best Deal Trophy since 2007. In 2010 Zahira College, Colombo won the championship, beating St. Benedict's College, Colombo for the second consecutive time. Hameed Al Husseinie College won third place against Zahira College, Mawanella.

Extra-curricular activities

Students are also encouraged to take part in other activities such as cadet training, Scouting camps, leadership training, Prefects' Guild, brass band, lifesaving training sessions and first aid.