Mohamed Nalir

Zahira College - Colombo

Zahira is an Arabic term which means ‘Excellence' in Arabic. The very first Private Muslim School in Sri Lanka, Zahira College was founded in 1892, as Al Madrasathul Zahira by two of the most prominent Sri Lankan Muslims of that time, namely I.L.M. Abdul Azeez and Arasi Marikar Wapchie Marikar who were both encouraged by Ahamed Orabi Pasha, a prominent Egyptian who was exiled in Sri Lanka. Today Zahira College is the largest Muslim educational institution in Sri Lanka with more than 4900 students and 250 teachers. The College which is situated in the heart of Colombo was built on the grounds adjoining one of the oldest mosques in Sri Lanka, the Maradana Mosque. Zahira College Colombo which has been in existence for 121 years is a well established and well known School in Sri Lanka. Under the stewardship of Mr. M. Fouzul Hameed who took over as Chairman of the Board of Governors in 2006, a well co-ordinated programme to improve the standards of education, sports and extracurricular activities within the Islamic environment of the College has been carefully implemented with commendable success. The present Principal Mr. A.R.M. Trizvi Marikkar has taken it as a challenge to improve the results further in the Year Five Scholarship, O' Level and A' Level examinations each year, and for that purpose he and his team have introduced a series of new steps. They are confident now that Zahira has an infra-structure that can compare with any one of the best schools in the Island and with a teacher cadre to match, the future of the current approximately 5000+ boys who are educated at Zahira will be bright. Zahira College is now relentlessly pursuing a policy in search of excellence.