Ursula Wijesuriya – A tribute to my English Teacher with love
View(s):Having read the Sunday Times (12/06/2022) article about my Grade 9 and 10 English Teacher Ms Ursula Wijesuriya beautifully written by Yomal Senerath Yapa, I was inspired to jot this note to reflect on the beautiful memories about my English teachers.
Teachers are the backbone of a school. Many of us may remember our formative years, the school education we received and teachers who changed our life’s course. We were so lucky to have been under their careful guidance.
Nalanda can claim that it had the qualified best English Language Teachers specially during 60-80’s. My first English teacher at Nalanda was Ms W. Liyanage who later joined Stanmore Crescent Girls School (which was subsequently named Sirimavo Balika) as its first Principal followed by Ms K Ranasinghe, Swarna Fernando in the Primary school and Ms E Silva and Mr. Ekanayake in the lower mid school, Ms. Rohini Weerasinghe and finally Ms. Ursula Wijesuriya in the upper middle school. We also were subject to the influence of other English Teachers who were taking parallel classes such as Mr. Nelson Mendis, Mr. Bandara, Ms Janet Karunaratne and Mr. Weeraman. In my case Mr. Nelson Mendis’s influence was greater, as I was a cadet and a prefect of the school. All these teachers made it a point to talk to us in English which sometimes made us avoid them unless it was an urgent matter. I was also guided and moulded by two masters involved in cadeting, Lt Col A.M.W Dhananjaya and Late Lt. Col Lawrence De Silva.
Mrs. Wijesuriya joined Nalanda from St. Johns Nugegoda in the early 70’s. This was Nalanda ‘s Golden era. She was born on 13th March 1932, and on the 13th March this year she completed 9 decades of a beautiful journey on earth. Quite fit and agile, she is blessed by everyone concerned, for her to complete the century healthily and happily. She spent 20 years at Nalanda not only teaching the language but developing an interest among young Nalandians in English Literature too. She fine-tuned the linguistic skills of many of us. The book “Living English Structure” is what she used as a guide. She was dramatic when reciting poems. She dressed elegantly to school. Although she was not a tough teacher, she was firm and calm in her approach to control the mischievous lot. There were a few students in the class who danced to a different kind music but she was able get them back to listen to her own music. Some of them produced good results and mastered the language well. She enjoyed teaching and was passionate about the subject she taught. For almost 20 years she travelled quite a distance to and from Panadura and Campbell Place.
She was a prolific writer. While carrying out her duties as a teacher and mother she found time to author many books amidst the daily chores of a working mother. Her retirement gave her enough time to engage in her hobby of writing. Some of her contributions were ‘The Songs of the sisters’ ‘Ambergris’, ‘the songs of the elders ‘Nothing Grows under the banyan tree’ – a short story, the main story of the book published by Associated Newspapers Ceylon 2007 along with another 23 stories under the title of her short story ‘Nothing grows under the banyan tree’. ‘Slow down the river’, ‘fish boys’ and Ambergris are her adventure story novels which gave her two Art council awards and a State Literary award.
Having had her education at St. Johns College Panadura she entered the University of Colombo and graduated after completing her degree. She opted for the profession of teaching and joined St. Johns Nugegoda. We Nalandians under her tutelage felt that she was treating teaching not as a profession but as a vocation. For that matter, for many of our teachers who were in the junior and mid school, teaching was a vocation than a profession. They delivered the best, loved their students moulded and guided them to be good citizens.
This is the very reason teachers of yesteryear are still being venerated. They commanded respect from all strata of a school’s stakeholders, the students, parents, old boys and the neighborhood. All of us were fortunate to be students during the Golden era of Nalanda College under the leadership of our unassuming Principal Mr. Sugunadasa Athukorale. Many talents of students were unearthed during this period, including writing skills. Mrs. Wijesuriya was assigned the responsibility of editing and correcting the student contributions to many a school publication such as Magazines, Souvenirs and News Papers etc.…, which she did with a passion. She was able to develop good writing skills in many and pushed them to redefine their capabilities and capacities.
I remember meeting her a few times after her retirement at various functions organised by the Nalanda Junior OBA. One such function was the first ever Teachers’ Felicitation Ceremony (the ‘Guru Upahara’) in 1997, she did not forget to appreciate the organisers, for arranging such an imposing function by sending a tributary note addressed to me as President and Varuna Ratnaweera as Secretary of the Junior OBA. Of course, there were many who sent us letters of appreciation after this event. Such were the qualities of teachers of our era.
Mrs Wijesuriya’s children too studied at Nalanda. She was a committed teacher and did her best to impart her knowledge and had a very good success rate at GCE(O/L) s. She even went to the extent of teaching English Literature to some students and made them sit for the O/L Literature paper while they were already in the A/L classes. Such was her passion to see her students improve their knowledge and she took so much joy in imparting hers. Nalanda may have been considered by her as her second home. This teacher left a distinctive mark on the lives of many of us. Dear teacher, thank you so much, may the blessings of the triple gem be with you forever.
I wish her a healthy
and happy life.
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