The Mentor of the Science Section

The Headmaster of the Science section retired after 37 years of service. We decided to give an account of him in the perspective of a student at the science section.

As we made our way into the section just after our O/levels, we were immediately ushered into the physics lab. There was a huge noise amongst all the boys and then when he came in there was pin drop silence. We all knew how tough Mr. Siri Edirisinghe could be on discipline. We certainly knew that we would not be able to get up to our old pranks in here without facing certain punishment.

He started his speech. From the beginning Mr. Siri Edirisinghe gave us no doubt that we were about to experience true pain in studies and not to even think that what we did for our O/Ls would be enough. I realized he was just giving us the true picture of how things were. Mr. Siri Edirisinghe was not a pessimist. He was a realist and where there were thorns he would be sure to look upon them and realize that they were there and there were no roses in them.

I remember after the second term results, one of my friends who had got below average marks was immediately given a talking to in front of the whole section. Instead of being put down by these

remarks he resolved to work much harder and did an admirable job of pulling his marks up to the above average level. Such was Mr. Siri Edirisinghe’s way of working with the students of his section. When any student is performing below average his suggestion seemed to be to take another course. It was just his way of saying “you are going to fail no matter what unless you do something about it right now”.

Mr. Siri Edirisinghe was also a big believer in discipline. He was indeed second to none when it came to keeping up the discipline. He could with ease control the entire section single-handedly and no student would be stupid enough to try and cross his path. Even the prefects were not spared. They were made come on time, notwithstanding their duties.

In fact when it came to him keeping the discipline in the section that is where I had some of the best moments in the section. Many a time we would be playing rugby with a water bottle inside the class room or we would be attempting to create a new sport by seeing who could run the highest up the wall (our foot prints still remain on the wall) we would get a “red alert” that Mr. Siri was on his way up and we would rush to clear up the proof of our work which seemed to be strewn all around the class room. Many a time we would get caught as well and we were simply thrown out of the classroom for the rest of the period or asked to stand in front of his office for the rest of that period. (We were lucky enough to be spared the task of asking our parents to accompany us to school the next day).

Apart from the role he played as head master of the section he also was a skilled teacher. A little monotonous at times but whatever he taught sunk in and if there was any question that a student found hard he was there anytime. I myself have found myself confronted with some twisted questions that some evil person setting the AL paper managed to come up with and when I went to Mr. Siri Edirisinghe he immediately gave me the solution to my problems. He was always there at anytime to give us a clue about the world of Physics.

Mr. Siri Edirisinghe was not just feared, but utterly respected by students of all time. There is a time when we’ve just joined the science section that we tend to hate his methods. Yet as time passes we realize that he did all that for the love of the school and especially for the love of his science section. It was his meticulous methods of discipline that brought good results at College. In fact there was not a single student with 4As in this section before he took over.  

The day that Mr. Siri Edirisinghe left was indeed a day that the school suffered a huge loss. There is no way to tell what the future might bring but it is certain that it will be a Herculean task to find someone to take over for Mr. Siri Edirisinghe and work in the same manner as him. The only things we can do are trying and uphold the values and morals that Mr. Siri Edirisinghe did his best to instil in us. 

The Ternion wishes a peaceful retirement to Mr. Siri Edirisinghe.