Colombo - Education

Education

Education institutions in Colombo have a long history. Colombo has many of the prominent public schools in the country, some of them government-owned and others private. Most of the prominent schools in the city date back to the 1800s when they were established during the British colonial rule, such as the Royal College Colombo (1835). Certain urban schools of Sri Lanka have some religious alignment; this is partly due to the influence of British who established Christian missionary schools. These include the Anglican, Bishop's College(1875); the Buddhist, Ananda College (1886); the Muslim, Zahira College (1892); the Catholic, St. Joseph's College (1896). The religious alignments do not affect the curriculum of the school except for the demographics of the student population.

Colombo has many prominent International Schools and the students studying in these schools sit for Edexcel and Cambridge examinations and thousands of students from International schools are studying in the USA, UK, Australia and Canada. Top International schools include: Colombo International school, Asian International School, Wycherley International School, Elizabeth Moir International School, Lyceum International School, Gateway College, Ilma International School and several other International schools.

Higher education in the city has a long history, beginning with the establishment of the Colombo Medical College (1870), the Colombo Law College (1875), School of Agriculture (1884) and the Government Technical College (1893). The first step in the creation of a University in Colombo was taken in 1913 with the establishment of the University College Colombo which prepared students for the external examinations of the University of London. This was followed by the establishment of the University of Ceylon in Colombo. Today the University of Colombo and the University of the Visual & Performing Arts are state universities in the city. The Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology has a metropolitan campus in the city centre. There are several private higher education institutions in the city.

See also: Education in Sri Lanka

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Famous quotes containing the word education:

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    —Richard B. Stolley (20th century)

    “There comes a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given him to till.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

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    —Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)