Horana Taxila CC building on a proven academic legacy
Horana Taxila Central College is a pioneer school established in 1946 as a central collage. Ever since then it has become well-known in
College Logo
Sri Lanka for its educational and extracurricular triumphs.
Taxila Central College is located very close to Horana town in the Kalutara district in the Western Province.
The present Taxila Central College is a product of one hundred years of continued progress. In 1905 the Horana Buddhist English School was established under a programme initiated by the Ceylon Buddhist Theosophist, led by Col. Henry Steel Olcott, which created several Buddhist schools. It was built on a small plot of land provided by Sathis Wimalasekara, a local landowner.
College Name Board
The Horana Buddhist English School was rechristened the Taxila Buddhist English School an idea suggested by W. K. S. Fonseka, a teacher from the school, and endorsed by then principal W. S. Sirisena.
An educational restructuring projected launched by the C W W Kannangara Committee in 1943, saw the establishment of 54 central colleges throughout the country. There was also mounting pressure for the Taxila Buddhist English School to come under the government and become a central college. As a result, with the backing of Hon. C W W Kannangara, the Taxila Buddhist English School was transformed into Taxila Central College on June 6, 1946.
Principal Mrs. K.K.P.M.Jayathilake
In 1954 the school premises was shifted to its present venue. After the transfer of venue, Taxila Central College turned into a 6 to 13 school, leaving its primary section at its old venue to exist as a separate school.
In addition to its first principal, Thomas Newton Silva, Taxila Central College has benefited from the inspired leadership of a number of principals.. The school’s first student entered the arts faculty of the University of Colombo in 1951. The science classes for the Ordinary Level were inaugurated in 1960. In 1961, Taxila wrote a new page in its history by initiating the Advanced Level science stream. Today, Taxila CC is a bilingual school commemorating 67 years of academic excellence,
Best Actress and the Best Actress Third of state school drama festival
with a student population exceeding 3700, a tutorial staff of nearly 183 and more than 50 non-academic staff. The Principal at present is Mrs. K. K. P. M. Jayathilake, whose immense experience is helping drive the college along the path to success.
Over the years, Taxila CC has earned reputation for academic excellence. Since its inception, its students have registered major achievements at public examinations. Today, among mixed schools, Taxila placed first in the island at all public examinations. Furthermore, it has gained the highest cut-off marks among mixed schools at the Grade 5 Scholarship Exam. Since 2002, Taxila’s students have captured the district’s top rank for virtually all the years of the Grade 5 Scholarship Examination.
They have enjoyed more than 99% results in their G.C.E. (O/L) examination since
Girls’ Cadet Platoon – 2012 De Soyza Trophy Winners
1996. The 2012 examination produced 58 students who received nine As and 70 with eight As. During almost every year, the G.C.E. (A/L) brings around five district ranks. The 2012 results saw 65 students record 3 As from all four streams. Annually, more than 200 students gain entrance into leading universities.
Taxila plays a major role in the sports and aesthetic fields as well. The Under 18 400m hurdles record belongs to Lahiru Prasanjith of Taxila CC. The girls’ and boys’ Kabadi teams bagged the championship several times during the last ten years. The Throw Ball and Karate teams also registered all-island victories.
In 2004, the school started the sport of swimming. By doing so it became the very first school in the Horana Division to do so. However, due to the lack of a swimming pool the school struggled to make any significant progress in the sport. Due to this, a request was sent to the then Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Rathnasiri Wickramanayaka, from the school and finances for a pool’s construction were donated by Rev. Kyuse EnShinjo, Founder of the Nethbutshu Buddhism Sect in Japan, with the collaboration of the Secretary to the Prime Minister in 2009.
The College Swimming Pool
The college’s girls’ Cadet Corp is a treasure to the school as they clinched the Soyza trophy in 2008 and 2012. Apart from their achievements, the quiz team, dance group, music group and drama team of the school managed to record many victories at the national level which has helped better the reputation of the school islandwide.
The Deputy Principal, Mr.Ranjith Wijenayake has produced and directed a number of stage plays on behalf of the school. Four of them (Asarana kathandarayak, Nena saha Pena and Diriya Mawa) represented the school at national level competitions. ‘Diriya Mawa’(a translation of bertolt Bretcht’s Mother Courage and Her Children) won the second place at the State School Drama Festival- 2012. That drama won 14 awards as well. it was a big production with two and half hours duration.
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