Jaffna College readies to meet challenges ahead

JDCSI’s Bishop Daniel Thiagarajah elected as its new chairman

(March 14, Jaffna, Sri Lanka Guardian) In preparation to meet the needs of Jaffna College which in the coming years will involve a great deal of orientation and involvement over and above the requirements of the formal educational programmes, the Board of Directors of Jaffna College, have appointed the Rev G Nadarajah and Mr Chandran Francis as Junior Vice Principals, This decision was made at its Annual General Meeting, Thursday March 12, 2009.

Committing our people to the task of renewal of hope and the challenges of rebuilding the community was very much the spirit with which the members of the school’s directorate assembled for their annual meeting, carried on their deliberations and made their decisions.

The elections to the various offices were all unanimous with the Rt Rev Dr Daniel Thiagarajah, the head of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India, elected as the new chairman. By this election the Board of Directors upheld the tradition of this office being usually held by the Bishop of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India whose predecessor church played the primary role in the founding of Jaffna College in 1872.

The Rt Rev Dr Sabapathy Kulendran has served in this office and so did the Rt Rev Jeyam Ambalavanar and the Rt Rev Dr S Jebanesan who now takes over the position as the manager of the school. The Board of Directors also elected Mr David Chinnakone as the Vice President, Mr S R Jesupalan as the secretary and Mr V R David as the treasurer.

A pioneer Christian institution, Jaffna College was established by the local people of the Jaffna District, seventeen years after the Batticotta Seminary was closed by the American missionaries who founded this institution in 1823. An incorporated body, the commitment of the school as determined by its founding fathers was that it should be a Christian institution dedicated to the educational development of the people of the Jaffna District.

The school has its own trust body, the Trustees of Jaffna College Funds in Boston, USA that manages the funds of the school. In the US many educational institutions have their own trustees who by law work in partnership with the directorate of the school. The Trustees of Jaffna College Funds are in no way connected to the American Mission Board or its successors and they function only in partnership with the Jaffna College Board of Directors.-Sri Lanka Guardian