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== History of Dehiwala Central College == In the era of the British Rulers, the official language of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) was English. Education in English language was the preserve of the elite and the ordinary people had little knowledge of it. Thus, English-speaking privileged class held almost all the Civil Service jobs, which required English fluency. Therefore, lack of konwledge in the language prevented the majority of the society from climbing up the social ladder. To overcome this inequity Dr. C. W. W. Kannangara, as the Minister of Education of the State Council of Ceylon introduced a series of schools throughout the country namely Central Colleges (Madhya Maha Vidyalaya), which benefited thousands of underprivileged students in every part of the country. These were modeled on Royal College, Colombo, one of the leading schools in the country. These schools took high quality secondary education to the rural outstations of the country. His objective was to create a central school in every electorate and as such, while in 1941 there were three central schools in the country, by 1945 the number had increased to 35, and to 50 by 1950. Dehiwala Central College was also started in 1944 as a result of Dr. C.W.W.Kannagara’s education reforms.

At the beginning Dehiwala Central College was started at the premises of Alethea College, Vihara Lane, Wellawatta. Due to lack of space available, the Alethea girls school was held in the mornings and the work of the Central College started in the afternoon session from 1.00pm to 5pm. causing lot of inconveniences to students and teachers. Therefore, Central College was later shifted to a location near Dehiwala Zoo. The land for the school was a donation by Mrs. Elena Rupasingha, a member of the famous Rupasingha family in Nedimala, Dehiwala, and the wife of former president Honorable J.R. Jayawardane.

The founder principal of the college was Mr. “Jayaweera Bandara” a teacher from Royal College, Colombo, who was a very talented teacher. He manitained high level of discipline among the students and he was assisted by Mrs. Wijethilake as the Vice Principal. Those who studied at Dehiwala Central College during the Mr. Jayaweera Bandara’s era were able to reach high positions in the society. Mr. Jayaweera Bandara was a good cricketer and a boxer. He had an excellent command in Sinhala, English and Pali languages. He has obtained a good knowledge in Greek, Sanskrit and Roman literatures.

At its inception there were three primitive buildings constructed mostly by timber and cocunut leaves. Two large halls were used for the school and the small one as the principals office. Students from Dehiwela & suburbs as well as from distant areas were started attending to the school. During 1953 riots these buildings were set on fire by mob and were reduced to ashes.

This is a school which was built on Ashes. In the mythologies of Greek/Roman say, the bird Pheonix was reborn from the ashes. Dehiwala Central College too was a Pheonix, which has reborn from ashes to live again. From then onwards Actors, Performers, Lawyers, Media Personnel, Businessmen, Doctors, Engineers, Bankers, Politicians and top rankers of the society were produced from this college. One of the students became one of the prime ministers of the country.