Uduvil Girls' College ( ta, உடுவில் மகளிர் கல்லூரி ''Uduvil Makalir Kallūri'', UGC) is a
girls
A girl is a young female human, usually a child or an adolescent. When a girl becomes an adult, she is accurately described as a ''woman''. However, the term ''girl'' is also used for other meanings, including ''young woman'',Dictionary.c ...
Uduvil
Uduvil ( ta, உடுவில்) is an agricultural village of about 32.7 square kilometers situated along the KKS Road at about five miles to the North of Jaffna city, Sri Lanka. It is surrounded by the villages Chunnākam, Kandarōdai, Sa ...
, Sri Lanka. 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
Vaddukoddai (also spelt Vattukkottai, Vatukotai, Vattukotai) ( ta, வட்டுக்கோட்டை, si, වඩුකෝඩයි) is small but important town in the minority Sri Lankan Tamil dominated Jaffna peninsula of Sri Lanka. I ...
. The ACM established numerous schools on the peninsula, the first school being the ''Common Free School'' (
Union College
Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia Co ...
) in
Tellippalai
Tellippalai or Thellippalai ( ta, தெல்லிப்பழை Tellippaḻai
. In 1820 the ''Uduvil Seminary'' was established in
Uduvil
Uduvil ( ta, உடுவில்) is an agricultural village of about 32.7 square kilometers situated along the KKS Road at about five miles to the North of Jaffna city, Sri Lanka. It is surrounded by the villages Chunnākam, Kandarōdai, Sa ...
. It was situated in an abandoned
Franciscan
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, caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans
, abbreviation = OFM
, predecessor =
, ...
mission built by the
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
.
Harriet Winslow
Harriet Wadsworth Winslow (née Lathrop; 1796–1833), born in Norwich, Connecticut, was a prominent missionary attached to American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
She was married at age 23 to fellow missionary Rev. Miron Winslo ...
(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. Witness to the tsunami recounts harrowing tale /ref> In her period the school had a great time with competitions. After that Uduvil's current principal Mrs. Suneetha Patricia Jebaratnam.
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
The following is a list of schools in Northern Province, Sri Lanka. The province is divided into 12 education zones which are sub-divided into 33 education divisions. There are around 1,000 schools in the province. 11 schools are national schools ...