Homagama Mahinda Rajapaksa School is the largest secondary model school in South Asia. This school was established as the first school under the project of establishing a thousand secondary schools in accordance with the vision of Mahinda Chinthana, implemented during the time of the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, on beautiful 26 acres of land in the Homagama Pitipana area.
The school, which opened on January 20, 2011, set a golden mark in its short journey of nearly eleven years by presenting the largest number of students from all Sri Lankan schools to the G.C.E. (OL) examination.
The Mahinda Rajapaksa School presented the largest number of students at the recently held O/L examination, 763, surpassing all the schools in Sri Lanka, and for the first time in its history, the school was able to get a 100 percent pass rate, beating popular schools with a long history.
According to the concept of the then Minister of Education, and the current Minister of Mass Media, Bandula Gunawardane, this was the largest secondary model school in South Asia at that time, and it was possible to maintain up to 17 classrooms in each parallel grade. Currently, there is 293 teaching staff in the school, where nearly 6,300 students are studying. The number of non-academic employees is also close to 40. With the increase in the number of students due to the increase in parallel grade classes, the administrative process of the school is also functioning in its own way.
This school, which started with the aim of achieving unique educational goals, added a new experience to the school system in this country by conducting school until 3.30 pm at the beginning. In the year 2011, the principal of the school was H. N. De Silva, who was a respected figure in the field of education.
Great job
From 2015 to now, the current principal, M. R. D. Kasun Gunaratne, has done a great job for the school by lifting it to a winning path day by day. Mahinda Rajapakse School was established as the first smart classroom in Sri Lanka with the support of the Korean Government. The Computer Lab, the English Speaking Computer Lab, and the Faculty of Technology, donated by the Indian Takral Company, are unique learning centres that cannot be seen in any school in this country.
All 763 students of Homagama Mahinda Rajapaksa School, which presented the highest number of students at this year’s general examination, passed, including 95 nine-A students, 94 eight-A students, and 89 seven-A students. Among the excellent results of Mahinda Rajapaksa School, all 71 students who sat the Japanese Language subject have passed, and 15 of them have obtained A passes. Also, 73 students sat the Korean language subject, and all of them passed. 92 students appeared for the exam in English, out of which 17 got A s. The number of parallel classes in the school is 17. Although online teaching was done during the Covid period, online teaching was not easy for the large group of 763 students at Homagama Mahinda Rajapakse School.
This secondary model school has presented the largest number of candidates for the Ordinary Level Exam ever since its inception. Because of this, the principal led the teaching staff to strengthen this online teaching, and the principal says that the credit for that success should go to the children led by the teachers.
Due to Covid, regular students missed out on extracurricular activities, and the school took various steps to somehow give the children that opportunity again. Mahinda Rajapaksa School has about 20 sports and more than 50 different associations that are active. To provide all these things to the students and to complete the missed subjects, the residential camps were strongly held, and they were very successful.
In this residential camp, which was aimed not only at the general level but also at the Advanced Level examination, the students were given the opportunity to grasp the subject matter through different experiences. Through this, the students who were ready to face the general level examination were able to reach the desired goals with education, entertainment, and happiness, and the background was laid to create a friendly school environment.
In addition to this, using the maximum resources and capabilities of the school, he brought the experts of personal ability and human ability development to the school and launched lecture seminars to promote the learning ability of the students facing the examination. The management board, led by the principal, was able to bring the students closer to understanding how to face the exam by conducting special seminars and lecture workshops to improve the skills of the students who were trapped at home.
In the past, no matter how much the learning and teaching processes of the students were missed, a few minutes were collected from each period to get a new morning reading time because it was an essential matter not only for the exam but also to endow wise students. It was extremely beneficial to students in terms of not only writing and reading, but also developing their critical thinking skills.
Helping hand
Children of various abilities, as well as children from diverse economic backgrounds, attend school to receive an education. Raising the theme that all of them are the children of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the school came forward to take care of the children suffering from such financial difficulties. The school was able to lend a helping hand to the financial hardships of the students by providing jukeboxes and block gal machines to the parents of the children. So far, the school management has been able to provide 24 Jukei machines and 12 Block G machines.
Among them were the students who had recently passed the Higher General Level. Apart from that, the school’s Sahaana Sevana was implemented to provide shelter to other children with such difficulties. There are 4 relief rooms in the school that include daily food, clothing, and books, and it is unique that students who need them can get them free of charge. Due to the financial difficulties of the children being borne by the school, those students were able to prepare for the examination with a clear mind.
A project-based education was made compulsory for the children facing the examination by imparting the children’s learning and teaching experiences through practical life experiences. Each class was required to do a project. It provided students with multifaceted and multifaceted experiences. The school played a big role in building a green environment while the educational activities were being carried out. The school principals worked hard to create a happy environment in every corner of the school by sensitizing the children to the environment.
This year, the children who recorded high scores at the G.C.E. (O/L) are the children who went on to achieve national and international achievements. A scientific evaluation of these college children was done through the website iNaturalist, and they received a special evaluation through this. It happened for the first time in Sri Lanka. Another important milestone in this work is to create a leadership climate in the school as well as a group of children accustomed to leadership.
Regardless of how little time they had for the exam, the school made a significant sacrifice to direct these students toward various aspects of aesthetic activities.
The purpose of this trip was to create a group of children who are full of education, not just for the purpose of exams, but also a group of children who value values and to endow a group of children who will advance local values. These children accomplished various activities in this short time to feed all those children with universal knowledge.
There have been many difficulties in the short journey of eleven years since the school arrived. Since it started recently, the loss of an alumni association is a big loss for the progress of the school. Because of this, all the expenses have to be traced through different departments. Despite all those obstacles, the school was able to achieve the educational goals that the school should fulfil for the children.
All the honour of managing such a group of children goes to the principal and the deputy principal in charge of the media section, T. D. D. Veerakkodi; Grade 10 principal Ven. Dodampe Saddhavimala Thera and Grade 11 Principal Ranjith Premakumara. This should be credited to the leading teaching staff.
Pix By Nissanka Wijeratne