WILLOUGHBY
SMALL
But what brought him fame was his Certificate which enabled
his students to get jobs in Malaysia
and Singapore. He was a Nature lover and this made him move
about in the Village and mix with the people.
All this won him the love and admiration of the community. They showed their gratitude by celebrating
his Birthday on a grand scale year after year in which the whole village
participated In fact the way his
Birthday was celebrated has gone into legend.
He was placed in a decorated carriage drawn by two horses and was taken
from Siththankerny junction to the College at Chulipuram. It was “Pooranakumbams” all the way and a
treat awaited the students at the school where delicious eats were found in
heaps.
He would not return home to Ireland and stayed at Chulipuram
till his death.
SAIVA PERIYAR
After a short interval of two years when Narayan Menon who
was later Vice-Chancellor of the University
of Benares was Principal
– SAIVA PERYAR SIVAPATHASUNTHARANAR took up the reins. Again it was a period of glory. Saiva Periyar was a Philosopher, Educationist
and Social Reformer and an author of books.
He saw to it that his influence as an Educationist was felt in all the
three Schools he served as Principal but he excelled at Victoria.
He could teach any subject on the curriculum and often
taught all the five subjects for the London
matriculation examination. He produced
very good results. As a psychologist he
motivated weak students. Hence many of
the weak students of other schools were sent by their parents to Victoria. This was told to us by no other person than
N.Sabaratnam when in 1985 he was invited as chief guest for Victoria’s prize giving. It seems Sabaratnam and Loganathan failed
their junior exam several times in their previous schools and finally they were
sent to Victoria
to study under Saiva Periyar. Here not
only they passed their exam but became great men in later life. One ending as Principal of Jaffna Hindu and
the other general manager of Bank of Ceylon and
later holding a high appointment in the World Bank.
Saiva Periyar’s students created a “Shishya Paramparai”,
worshipped him and kept on coming for his Gurupoojah year after year to their
Alma Master.
After Saiva Periyar his cousin Dr Sivapiragasam, the first
Ph.D. in Psychologhy in the Country was Principal for two years. Others who followed him were Muthucumaru,
Navaratnarajah and Sivarajah.
Mr THAMBIAPPAH
In 1947 Thambiappah resigned to contest the Kopay, seat in
the Parliamentary elections.
The Primary School Building was put up during the period of
D.C. Arulananthan. He was Principal from
1948 till 31-7-1949.
Mr S.SUBRAMANIAM
Mr V.THAMBU
Mr V.RAJASUNDRAM
Mr Spencer and Sangarapilai covered the period of one year
from the retirement of Mr V.Rajasundram and assumption of duties of Mr
Arunasalam on 17.05.1978.
Mr K.ARUNASALAM
His period was a period of achievements. Beside putting up the Building and extending
the Boundary wall on the Southern side he solved all the problems that the school
was confronted with. The S.D.S’s
financial and Accounting problems were settled and this enabled the purchasing
of two LMS of land on the Northern side.
He is acclaimed for the raising of standards and the
production of results. Inspite of very
good Teachers being there and full classes, the school had failed to produce
results hitherto at the A.L. level. Only
two students had entered the University till then. But now students started entering in
numbers. Within two years of his coming
there was an admission to the Science faculty and in 1981 four students gained
admission. Of the two – Bavani and
Ramanan entered the Medical faculty for the first time in the history of the school and Bavani entered the Colombo faculty scoring a
high aggregate. One entered Engineering
at the Kotelawala academy and one science.
In 1982, it was a record, 11 entered the University and that too for
almost all faculties including two for Medicine one for Colombo and one for Jaffna.
Afterwards results were produced as a matter of course. Inspite of problems in the country in the
village and the transferring out of good teachers, every year there were
admissions to the University. In all about
30 students entered the University during this period.
There was progress in all spheres of activities including
sports. In soccer although the school
had done well earlier it had never in its history of good fortune becoming
District champions. In 1981, for the
first time the under 15 team became champions having won 18 matches. The under 17 were Runners up. In 1982 the under 13 won the much coveted
Championship Cup having played the final match with Nelliady MMV at a common
grounds – Union College Grounds – in the prescence of two senior Directors of
Education who came all the way from Colombo, the Director of Education, Jaffna
and all the sports officials from Colombo and Jaffna. There was no competition in 1985 but the
trend continued till 1987 when every year at least one group did well.
In athletics too Victoria
got places at District meets and was leading all other schools in the circuit
meets. In scouting a field day with all
schools in Jaffna District participating was held at the school and for the
first time there was a President’s scout in 1982.
Regular Prize givings were held after a very long time and
for the first time founder memorial Addresses were instituted. There were other functions like the centenary
of Saiva Periyar in 1978, sports meets every year and Annual A.L. Union
Dinners.
Non formal Techinical Education courses in Stenography,
Lathe and Leather work were also introduced.
When Arunasalam retired he was second in rank only to the then Director
of Education in the Educational hierarchy as pointed out by Mr Munshoor in his
Prize day speech 1987 and the highest in the Educational cadre amongst Tamil
Principals in the Island. After Arunasalam, .V.M.Vijayaratnam acted for
sometime and then K.K.Nadarajah took over as Principal and was there till
4.07.1989. He too was an experienced
Principal and attended to the repairs of the school including the white washing
of the outer walls. The school continued
to get results. When he retired,
Selvaratnam acted for a month and was followed by Mr S.Pathmanathan. S.Pathmanathan has served as Teacher for a
long time and knew the traditions of the school. Hence he was able to maintain standards
although times were difficult then.
Mr K.CHANDRAPALAN
He was succeeded by K.Chandrapalan. To him, goes the credit of having held the
fort during very difficult times. Students
continued to enter the University.
During the period of the exodus the school functioned on a
part time basis at Hartly
College, Pt. Pedro. From 13.05.1996 the school started
functioning in its own premises at Chulipuram again.
He was able to restore hundred percent normalcy with the
help of old student’s Associations at Chulipuram and at Colombo, London, Canada
and France.
MRS A VELUPILLAI
I am personally happy that the trend I started in 1981 –
after a big gap – of sending students to the University is being continued by
her too.
She is lucky to be Principal of Victoria during its 125th
year celebrations. To make this
celebration grand she has enlisted the support of all branch Associations in
Chulipuram, Colombo, UK, France, Canada and Australia.
K. Arunasalam