Uduvil Girls' College ( ''Uduvil Makalir Kallūri'', UGC) is a
girls
A girl is a young female human, usually a child or an adolescent. While the term ''girl'' has other meanings, including ''young woman'',Dictionary.com, "Girl"'' Retrieved January 2, 2008. ''daughter'' or ''girlfriend'' regardless of age, ...
private
Private or privates may refer to:
Music
* "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation''
* Private (band), a Denmark-based band
* "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...
school in
Uduvil
Uduvil () 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 Chunnakam, Chunnākam, Kandarodai, Kandarōdai, Sanguvē ...
,
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
. 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
The American Ceylon Mission (ACM) to Jaffna, Sri Lanka started with the arrival in 1813 of missionaries sponsored by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). Although they had originally planned to work in Galle, the Briti ...
in Jaffna. The ACM established missions in other parts of the
Jaffna peninsula
The Jaffna Peninsula (, or ) is a region in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is home to the capital city of the province, Jaffna, and comprises much of the former land mass of the medieval Jaffna Kingdom.
The peninsula was historically ...
including one in
Vaddukoddai
Vaddukoddai (, ) (also spelt Vatukotai, Vaddukkoddai) is small but important town in the minority Sri Lankan Tamil dominated Jaffna peninsula of Sri Lanka. This place famous to Cultural Dances & Hindu rituals.
It became prominent with the foundin ...
. The ACM established numerous schools on the peninsula, the first school being the ''Common Free School'' (
Union College
Union College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York, United States. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the s ...
) in
Tellippalai
Tellippalai or Thellippalai ( Tellippaḻai
. In 1820 the ''Uduvil Seminary'' was established in
Uduvil
Uduvil () 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 Chunnakam, Chunnākam, Kandarodai, Kandarōdai, Sanguvē ...
. It was situated in an abandoned
Franciscan
The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...
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 school in 1824. It was called ''Missionary Seminary and Female Central School''.
Uduvil has had eight principals at its helm. Eliza Agnew took over as principal after Harriet Winslow then followed by Susan Howland and Lulu Bookwalter, Uduvil's last American principal. Ariam Hudson Paramasamy was the first Sri Lankan principal, and was followed by Saraswathy Somasundaram in 1970 and Chelvi Selliah in 1982. She was followed by Cherry Mills. Witness to the tsunami recounts harrowing tale /ref> In her period the school had a great time with competitions. Uduvil's current principal is 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. 12 schools are national schools ...