Medirigiriya National School is working hard to produce worthwhile citizens
Medirigiriya National School is a prestigious national school in Sri Lanka which is situated amongst the ruins of the ancient City of Polonnaruwa. The school is at the heart of the Medirigiriya town in a calm and quiet place refreshed by the breeze of Kawudulu Wewa, blessed by the Medirigiriya Watadageya; the symbol of ancient royalty. The school owns a respectable name in the area for its service to bloom the petals of wild flowers.
With the development of Mahaweli Development projects, the agriculture, education, religious, economical and social sectors of the area gained a massive development. As a result, this school was founded on 15th January 1959. Though the school owned 25 acres, there were no proper buildings at the start. The school commenced with 6 students and one teacher. The pioneer principal was Mr. Saddhathissa Bandara.
The immense contribution of the late minister honourable C.P.Silva brought official recognition in 1963 as a government school. The first building of this government school was a small hut and it was headed by the principal Mr. Kumaradasa Rajapakse .The school was upgraded as a Maha Vidyalaya in 1968 and the first building with an administrative unit was built in 1970.
Advanced Level Art and Commerce streams were introduced in 1972 wh i l e science scheme was brought-in in 1978. With the steady growth of both number of students and infrastructure facilities, the school later was promoted to a central college level. Finally it gained national school status in 1996.
Today the school has risen up to a 1AB super school. Now the school has developed under the 1000 secondary schools project. Hence, it is equipped with all the laboratory facilities including technological subjects. Medirigiriya National School owns the best library in the province which nourishes the students with knowledge. At present it is one of the biggest schools in the area with a student population of 2480, studying from grades 5 to 13. 117 teachers serve them with dedication. The leadership of the school is given to the principal Mr.Upul Jayarathne.
Medirigiriya National School has won both local and international recognition in the fields of education. Madusha Kavindi a student of grade 8 has got an opportunity to visit Philippines in 2013 to participate in the Olympiad competition. They are proud to mention that she is the only student selected to participate in an international science competition in North Central Province.
The school has produced remarkable results at public examinations too. The students have achieved number of higher ranks in the past few years in O/L & A/L examinations. In 2014 they were able to capture the district 1st, 7th & 10th in the biology stream and 7th in commerce stream. In 2013 the school gained the district 1st rank in biology stream. A student recorded the district first rank in 2013 at her G.C.E. (O/L) examination. The 2014 G.C.E. O/L results brought them eight 9As.
Medirigiriya National School has excelled in co-curricular and extracurricular activities such as sports, scouting, and aesthetics fields. The students are active members of various clubs as well. Media club, environment club, cadet corps, are some of them. The school baseball team emerged all island champions in 2014. Few of their players got the opportunity to visit Italy, Korea and China as the members of the national team. Four students got the chance to visit India for Judo tournaments and one of them was able to win the bronze medal in 2013. Music and dancing groups have brought honours to the school by gaining winning awards at the all island competitions. The most recent achievement of the school was winning the full ISA award at the international school award ceremony which, conducted by The British council.
The principal and the staff work together with the vision of creating an excellent school which produces worthy citizens who are competent enough to face future challenges.
Sujitha Miranda