Maradana Technology College

Maradana Technology College (Photo credit: Google Street View)

Maradana College of Technology (Sinhala: මරදාන කාර්මික විද්‍යාලය) is located at No. 557 on Olcott Mawatha in Maradana, Colombo District, Sri Lanka. It is considered the oldest technical college in the country (Tatnall, 2012; Welandawe & Weerasinghe, 2016).

The institute was first established in 1893 as Government Technical College and it was housed in a renovated coffee store situated in close proximity to the Ceylon Government Railway Terminal building at Maradana (Manathunga, 2016; Tatnall, 2012; Welandawe & Weerasinghe, 2016). It consisted of a small workshop, laboratory, lecture room and a classroom and the first student enrollment was only 25. The college became the pioneering institution for the study of science as it conducted chemistry, physics and biology classes for school teachers and for medical students prior to the establishment of Ceylon University College in 1921.

In 1906 the name of the institute was changed to Ceylon Technical College (Manathunga, 2016; Tatnall, 2012; Welandawe & Weerasinghe, 2016). In 1908 it started classes for commerce students and progressed over the years to become the centre for management and Business Studies. When Ceylon University College was established in 1921, the science section of the technical college was transferred to form the Department of Science, at the new university college. In 1933 the technical college was reorganised and started preparing candidates for the external degrees in Engineering of the University of London. It continued to hold regular classes for the external degree of the University of London until the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Ceylon commenced in 1950.

In 1953 the Arts and Crafts section of the technical colleges was transferred to a new department known as the Government College of Fine Arts and in 1960, the technician courses were transferred to a new establishment at Katubedda called the Institute of Practical Technology (Tatnall, 2012). This institute became the University of Moratuwa in 1972 (Tatnall, 2012).

Constructed in 1903, the red and white brick-decorated college building bears the architectural features of a Neo-Renaissance building (Manathunga, 2016). A flight of steps shaded by a gable roof provide the access to the building.

1) Manathunga, S. B., 2016. Pauranika Sthana Saha Smaraka: Kolamba Distrikkaya (In Sinhala). Department of Archaeology (Sri Lanka). ISBN: 955-9159-39-9. pp.59-60.

2) Tatnall, A., 2012. Reflections on the History of Computing. Springer. pp.128-129.

3) Welandawe, H., Weerasinghe, J., 2016. Urban Heritage in the Western Region Megapolis Planning Project. p.90.

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This page was last updated on 9 September 2022