St. John’s College, Nugegoda is one of the pioneer boys schools to be established in close proximity to Colombo city limits in the early 20th century. Established in 1915 under the colonial rulers, the school began as an Anglican boy’s school with a mere count of 100 students, later was converted into a mixed school. In 1935 the girls of the institution were separated to a neighbouring facility which is now known as Samudra Devi Girls’ School.
Throughout the past 96 years St. John’s, the only boys’ school in and around the area of Nugegoda has struggled many battles. At present the institution has grown to the strength of becoming a well reputed boy’s school with well mannered students and promising sportsmen.
“There had been many setbacks in all fields at St. John’s. The school was not well recognized as an institution and many rated this school at the very lowest. But today we can proudly see over 3500 well disciplined students taking their lessons in all aspects of life,” said Major GPB Liyanakumbura, the principal of the school.
St. John’s was well known for its dominance in the schools boxing arena during their early days. But today the school has over 21 sports activities and 12 societies or clubs that unearth the hidden talents of its sportsmen. Among all sports cricket has an obvious following while rugby which is a sport restricted to the popular schools in and around Colombo and the hill capital has gained keen interest of the students.
“St. John’s was in the lower divisions when I came to the school as the deputy principal in 2007. The state of discipline among the students was not in a satisfactory level but today I can proudly say it all has changed for good. Today St. John’s can be named as a school with well behaved boys and skilled sportsmen. Apart from a few boyish acts the students are well behaved,” added Liyanakumbura who is a strict disciplinarian.
Currently the school enjoys its status in the top division in all major sports which are cricket, rugby, badminton and boxing. However the most successful sports of St. John’s are not the contact or field sports as many may resume.
“Carrom, table tennis, badminton and chess are the most triumphant sports here at St. John’s. There are many reasons behind it and the lack of a proper ground tops the list,” said the deputy principal – co-curricular DN Gurudeniya.
Gurudeniya who is a well experienced school sports administrator with over a decade of experience from a leading school in Colombo took charge of all sports affairs of the school a year back. He noted the fact of keenness of the students though their parents sometimes find difficulties in meeting the demands in sports.
“St. John’s has students from different walks of life. With the new ruling coming into act which says that it’s compulsory for a student to engage in a sport or two, we encourage them to come forward and do so. But then again the conditions of their families play a huge role. There are areas where we can take care of and at the same time we have our limitations too. That’s when the involvement of the Old Boys Association (OBA) plays a major impact,” Gurudeniya added.
According to the school authorities the OBA does a major part in helping sports activities of the school by pumping out the financial support. They find the money from well-to-do past pupils who reside in developed countries and their funding has done great wonders in helping sports activities to strive at the top level. In addition the OBA helps out students from the poor families in many ways.
“They fund the main sports, cricket and rugby, which has a great expenditure list. In addition they carry out a scholarship scheme for the students of less privilege families with funding, meals, stationary, shoes and uniforms. Though our OBA is not that strong as in other leading schools, it is doing a highly commendable work,” Liyanakumbura explained.
The school also has a good number of students who get through the major exams; the fifth grade scholarship, GCE O/L and A/L. According to the school officials the percentage stand over 80 out of 100 and 60% of them are engaged in some sport.
“This shows the effort of our students and the teaching staff. This balance is a great achievement for us but we face a major setback when popular schools have the tendency of grabbing sportsmen and students from St. John’s at important stages of age. Students who join here after the scholarship, GCE O/L or A/L are minimal in comparison to the number that goes out from here. We make a great effort to keep them in but from the sportsmen’s or students’ points of view it’s also not fair to hold them up. For them it’s a great step forward but as an institute which is struggling to make our way to the top in the sports field our journey is being pulled back by this,” elaborated Saman Wijesinghe, the prefect-of-games.
“We have introduced a three-staged programme for all the students. At primary level we teach them the importance of sports the fun way. We teach them the basics in four sports. And in the second stage which targets the students of mid-school we teach the technical importance and the steps beyond basics of the sports they are engaged in. The seniors are targeted in the third stage and by the time they reach there almost every stage is covered. We started this process six months back and there’s a great interest among the students. Almost everybody take part in this course,” added Wijesinghe.
“Our rugby players have won many titles despite the disadvantage of not having a proper ground. We have a strong squad of nearly 100 players in all age groups and it’s a very good promise by numbers for a school like St. John’s. The junior structure shows great potential for the future and in feeding players to the top. The wins we registered in the recent years have managed to evoke the interest of the OBA and past rugby players and the parents’ support come in a big way. It’s encouraging the way things are developing in rugby,” said N Wijerama, the master-in-charge of rugby.
Though cricket and rugby are in the lead of popularity, St. John’s sportsmen are impeded by not having the proper ground facilities to carry out their practice sessions or preparations. The school has three sections of their facilities situated at different places however finds it hard to create a ground of their own.
“We have a junior section near Kalubowila and there is a small land within the premises which we have developed by demolishing a few buildings but still it’s not the best in condition. There’s hardly any grass on the land and yet our cricketers and ruggerites conduct practices there. Due to this setback we cannot form an athletics pool. We have made a request to the top authorities to at least help all the schools of the area with a common ground but we are yet to hear any good news. Let’s hope things would work in favour,” Liyanakumbura is also attempting to pioneer rifle shooting at schools.
St. John’s will celebrate its milestone centenary anniversary in 2015. Liyanakumbura who has already begun the planning for the celebrations revealed their primary goals. “The school is blessed to have a keen set of teachers who are doing a fine voluntary work to uplift the standards of sports. But we do have a few things to fulfill. The school needs added facilities of an auditorium, a canteen and few more class rooms. We are planning to have them all by 2015. At the same time our intention is to develop the status of the sports that are doing well and reintroduce some of the sports what were given up in the recent past very soon. We have already proved a point and in no time St. John’s will be a force to reckon in the sports field”. |
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