Gateway College Celebrates 25 Years
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Gateway College celebrates its 25th Anniversary this year with multiple events held throughout the year to mark the occasion. The Education Times spoke with Dr Harsha Alles, Chairman of the Gateway Group, about Gateway’s journey from its beginning to becoming established today, as one of Sri Lanka’s premier international educational institutions.Founded by Mr. R.I.T Alles in 1997 in a converted house with 33 students, Gateway has made rapid progress to establish itself in Sri Lanka’s education sector having five schools, with state-of-the-art facilities, spread across the island. Dr. Harsha Alles tells us that the continuous re-investment of profits into developing the schools has been key to this rapid growth, allowing Gateway to better accommodate and educate more students.
Begins with religious ceremonies
Multi-religious and multi-ethnic unity is an important aspect of the Gateway ethos and the 25th Anniversary celebrations began with multi-religious ceremonies in all five schools. The main event of these religious ceremonies was held in Kandy, with a Pirith ceremony conducted with the participation of a 100 priests from the Asgiriya Chapter.
700 Members of Staff to Join the Main Celebration
Dr Harsha Alles, Chairman of the Gateway Group
Dr Harsha Alles said that a special celebration will also be held in Shangri-La, Hambantota on the 7th and 8th of October with the participation of the entire staff (both academic and administrative) of Gateway. Service awards will be given during the event’s proceedings, and Gateway College will relaunch Mr. R.I.T. Alles’ biography in all three languages, which certainly will be a vital resource to Principals and Heads of Schools across the island. A token handover of the biography will be made to the Principal of C.W.W.Kannangara Vidyalaya in Galle which was re-built through Gateway’s initiative after the tsunami. Arrangements are being made to distribute copies of the biography to a thousand Principals of state schools.
Launching of the Coffee Table Book
At this event, Gateway will also launch its 25th Anniversary Coffee Table Book, which is unique in many ways. It has two sections; the first, a history of Gateway’s 25-year journey and the second which looks at the next 25 years from the perspective of its students. Dr Alles says that Gateway strives to keep up with the times and to understand its students’ goals and ideas, and the future 25 years section demonstrates that.
An excerpt from the book explains: ‘One of the core aims of the training given to Gateway students is to prepare them for the future. As part of this endeavour… the school launched a programme to encourage students to visualise the future using history and the present as their yardstick’.
An introductory seminar was conducted by science-fiction writer Yudhanjaya Wijeratne on how to make and demonstrate their predictions; after which all students from Year 3 upwards could choose from a variety of topics to showcase their predictions through essay, drawing, song, poetry or other media. An Independent editorial team chose the sixteen best articles to be included in the Coffee Table Book from over 250 submissions by students across the 5 schools.
Gateway also plans to have a Tree Planting Campaign to plant 2500 trees organised by Gateway Negombo and a Walk and Carnival organised by Gateway Colleges in Dehiwala and Colombo to mark the occasion.
Delivering all-rounded education
Dr Harsha Alles explains that Gateway aims to create all-rounded students who excel in both academics and co-curricular activities. Dr Alles, who is a qualified medical doctor and a former University Lecturer but who chose education over medicine in 2000, to lead Gateway as it grew further, says Gateway provides a variety of subjects, sports and co-curricular activities as it believes in allowing students to explore their talents in the fields most suited to them.
Moreover, Gateway provides a choice of international educational qualifications, including being the only approved school in Sri Lanka for the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE), which awards grades through a combination of 70% continuous assessment and 30% final exams, a structure that Dr Alles says relieves some of the stress students face at exams. While many Sri Lankans deplore the stressful exam-centred Sri Lankan Education system, Dr Alles explains Gateway is proud to be one of the first schools to take action on that front and tells us the SACE programme is already a great success with students.
International School in a Sri Lankan Setting
At Gateway, giving students an international exposure doesn’t prevent them from interacting with local schools, says Dr Alles. Gateway has already conducted a number of inter-school sports events with other local schools, giving students an expansive Sri Lankan perspective, which Dr Alles says contradicts the misguided perception people have of International Schools.
Handling the Covid-19 Pandemic
Speaking about how Gateway handled the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr Alles highlighted that the rapid action by Gateway College allowed it to become one of the first Sri Lankan schools to go completely online and give students the best possible education from the safety of their homes.
Dr Alles recounts the events on the 12 of March 2020, when the Government had just announced plans to shut down all schools due to the pandemic. At a meeting with the entire staff held on that very day, Dr Alles said that Gateway decided to cover the entire curriculum online without postponing any academic or co-curricular programme or event.
At the time, Gateway had already entered into a partnership with Microsoft and therefore, some teachers were already using Microsoft Teams, while the rest of the teaching staff had to be trained to teach online.
This was attended to and within a week of the Government announcement, Gateway had started online school. Gateway also thought about students and teachers with unstable internet connections and unsuitable devices, said Dr Alles, and partnered with Dialog; to give internet access, and Hewlett-Packard (HP); to give devices, to necessary students and teachers. HP devices were delivered to the doorstep, with a 22-instalment payment plan with no interest.
Ultimately, Dr Alles said that Gateway College distinguishes itself from other educational institutions through its focus on developing specific in-house programmes to cater to the everchanging needs of students.
The school’s AI, vocational and soft skills programmes, as well as the Founder’s Award at advanced level which includes guidance towards voluntary service and internships for students before they graduate from Gateway, are good examples of this.
Dr Alles explains that Gateway’s focus on the well-being of its students and on developing a student who excels in all fields has resulted in its excellent academic and co-curricular record, which brings prestige to the school and establishes Gateway College for years to come.
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