Rahula Matara keeps on marching as a proud school
Matara Rahula College is a school with a rich history and a glorious present. Since 1923, the school has managed to reach high stands nationally and internationally, playing great roles in the fields of education, sports and many other school activities, achieving the goals of today. Therefore, Rahula College stands as a prominent and as a proud school in the nation and as well as in the whole world.
Rahula College has bestowed numerous distinguished personalities to the nation for the past 88 years. The Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana, Parliamentarians Buddhika Pathirana, Dew Gunasekara, Wi j e yadasa Dahayayake, Hemal Gunasekara, Former Presidential Secretory Kusum Balapatabandhi, Presidential secretory LalithWeerathunga, Former Election Commissioner Chandrananda De Silva, Chiar man - Siddalepa Industry Mr. Vi c t o r Hettigoda, many surgeons in the medical field are a few of them. It gave life towards a new era of Sri Lankan education.
In 1922 the Principal of Mahinda College, Galle, Mr. F.A. Pearce together with Mr. D. T. W. Rajapaksha Nothari Ralahami , Sir R. A. D. Gunawardana Maha Kulatunga established the “Buddhists Society”. This was the first step which led to the beginning of the Rahula College in the future. The society opened a school in a rented building at the Main Street, Matara on May 1, 1923. The school was declared open as “Parackramabahu Vidyalaya”. The school’s motto stood as “May I be a true Buddhist”. Mr. Hewabowalage Yasapala became the f irst student of Parackramabahu Vidyalaya.
In 1944 the primary section which was treated as a separated part of the school and the Primary Section of the school was shifted to the Sudarshana Model School premises, Welegoda in 1991 with the educational reconstruction by the government. The Sudarshana Model School was administratively vested by Rahula College.
Presently the school is boosted with more than 3400 students and employs around 184 academic and 78 non-academic staff. The administration was handed over to Mr. Nimal Dissanayake who is the 15th principal of the school. The correct leadership, capability and management power to gear the journey of development are accelerated by the present principal. He invests his broader skills, knowledge and experience to mark the new era of Mother Rahula.
The College provides the students many facilities which include a college hostel, complete playground for both cricket and athletics, well equipped laboratories, a well maintained library, badminton court, basketball court, computer unit, a bi-lingual unit, swimming pool and a special education unit.
Rahula College is fortunate to be amongst the top performers list of the national schools in Sri Lanka for nearly a century. The new millennium has rewarded the school more and more. In 1942 two students passed the London Matriculation exam and Mr. Piyanda Bandarage became the first student of Rahula College to enter the University directly from the school and 45 students entered the university in 1975 and this was a new record for Matara district. Since then the victory of Rahula began and presently more than 400 students enter leading universities annually. S. N. Rathnayake (Physical Science) emerged first in the district, D.D.L. P. Rathnayake (Bio Science) and P.K.T.Dilhara (Commerce) obtained district second places at the G.C.E.(A/L), 2011.
Former principal Mr. G. William De Silva, started scouting for the first time, with Mr. B. D. P. de Silva as the Scout Master and the Scout Troop has been in existence 1928. This became the second organized Scout Troop in the Matara district. In 1933 the sports field has developed a lot. Since then Rahula College has produced many sports stars to the nation. The famous Sri Lankan national team cricketers Mahinda Ekanayake (1983/1984), J.S. Gamage ( 1994/ 1995), Pramodya Wickramasinghe (1996) and Suraj Randeev (since 2004) are few of them.
Not only in cricket but also they have done well in other sporting events too. Ashan Indika (400m hurdles) and Dilshan Ranaweera (Hammer Throw) have participated in the Asia Junior Athletics Meet 2012. The Southern Province Athletic championship trophy 2012 was won by Rahula College and they produced a set of ground records in under 19, 400m hurdles, under 17 relay 4 x 100 and under 21 Pole Vault. Annually the college badminton team, chess team and the Wushu team has brought national level and provincial level successes to the college.
Moreover, the “Hanuma Wanna” dancing troop bagged the 2011 all island second place and the Eastern music group has secured first and second places consecutively since 2010.
With the mission of “to bring forth a future generation whose knowledge, attitudes and skills could be tallied with national, common interests and who loves the environment and thyself alike, when efforts are made to conquer the challenges, in their journey forward to the future”, Rahula College march forward as a prominent and as a proud school in the nation.