Madhavi Ranasinghe

Hillwood College Kandy

Hillwood College is a private girls school situated at the heart of the hill capital of Kandy, Sri Lanka. The school is famous for their well-mannered girls, who are being nurtured basically in a Christian-based environment. Even though the school is of a Christian origin, different pupils of different races as well as of different religions attend the school while keeping there identity as it is. Through this approach the school has been able to produce youngsters who can live cooperatively with different ethnic groups. The school is situated in the lake round area nearby to the Malwatu pirivena (Buddhist Monastery). Hillwood College Kandy was founded in 1890 by Elizabeth Bellerby as a result of an appeal made by Rev. Ireland Jones and Rev. Garret to the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society (CEZMS) to open a school in benefit for the Kandyan girls.[2] Bellerby along with Ethel Jones arrived Sri Lanka on 1889 to fulfill the request of the CEZMS.[3] Upon arrival she went to Christian Mission School, Kotte to learn Sinhalese which might have surely made her easy to tackle the local folk. Bellerby started the institute between May and August 1890. At start there were only seven pupils at the commencement. In those times there was a prejudice of people as "not educating girls", but she convinced the parents telling that "If you educate a son, you educate an individual but if you educate a daughter you educate an entire family". With these remarks the vision of Kandyan people about educating girls changed vastly. After founding the college, Bellerby served Hillwood College Kandy as the founding principal for almost 21 years. Nowadays the school is acting as a facilitator to more than 2000 girls.