Aesthetically correct

Academic excellence, fused with some aesthetic sense, would produce ideal children. At least that is the ideology Rathnawali Balika Vidyalaya, Gampaha, seems to entertain.

As a leading girls' school, Rathnawali has produced professionals in various fields. Rathnawalians are equipped with academic as well as humanitarian sense to serve the world at large. The best example comes from the student who topped A-L Commerce stream in 2013.

Rathnawali Principal H A H Jayawardane had this to say: "We have achieved most of the expected educational goals so far. We worked hard to achieve them. It is basically because of the students' commitment and their talents. On the other hand, teachers guided them perfectly while working hard to develop their skills. One of the important things we did was that we arranged extra hours to cover the syllabi and made students prepare for the exams. Students were quite keen on these extra activities and they followed the given guidelines to achieve better results."

During 2010, 2011 and 2012 they have achieved the all island all round best results in Ordinary Level examination which is a record. In 2013 Rathnawali girls have achieved good results in all A-L streams. There were 14 students selected for Engineering and 47 for Medicine while 19 for Law and 70 for Arts. This is one of the highest results to come from Rathnawali Balika Vidyalaya.

Academic achievements are not the entire way of measuring the success of the students. Aesthetic talents too add extra value to their lives. Making it a reality, Rathnawali girls have won all island first places in many dancing and music items during 2013. They have won all island first places in Junior new creative dancing-girls, Senior ragadhari creative- girls, open folk music etc. apart from music, they have won many awards for their dancing items as well.

All the items have been created by the teachers with the support of the students. They have consulted aesthetic experts to come up with unique items. Students are highly talented and creative.

"We need to create human beings with quality education plus good attitudes.

Today parents go after their kids to make them mere professionals who have passed the written examinations with flying colours. But what we actually need is to create balanced humans with many skills who are humane. We are in the process of doing it.

I expect every parent to understand this and make their children good human beings without letting them become victims of this prevailing extra competitive education system. We cannot change the system but we can change the attitudes and make a difference," she further added.

Pictures by Saman Sri Wedage and Sulochana Gamage

Read more here:
Aesthetically correct