The Royal College Union (RCU) has announced a major initiative to transform The Royal College, Colombo, into a fully connected Smart School, with the support of MAS Holdings and Brandix Lanka Ltd.
The 180 Million Rupee project, aims to create a more interactive, accessible and future-focused learning environment for students, while equipping teachers with the technology, training and resources needed to make learning more engaging and effective.
The planned transformation includes 141 smart classrooms, a campus-wide fibreoptic network, an integrated Learning Management System and School Management System, high-speed connectivity and cloud infrastructure, a dedicated teacher training centre, virtual collaborative classrooms and a digital content creation studio.
The initiative has been made possible through financial contributions by MAS Holdings and Brandix Lanka Ltd., led by Mahesh Amalean, Chairman MAS Holdings and Ashroff Omar, Group Chief Executive Officer Brandix Lanka Ltd., who are also distinguished past pupils of The Royal College. Their support reflects a shared commitment to expanding educational opportunity and preparing young people for a rapidly changing, technology-driven world.
“As the world changes rapidly, so do the skills and capabilities young people need to succeed – and education must keep pace. This initiative will give students more engaging ways to learn, build new skills and a stronger sense of curiosity, while equipping teachers with better tools to teach. Importantly, it will also create a practical model that can eventually support schools across Sri Lanka,” said Mahesh Amalean.
“Sri Lanka has never been short of talent – what our young people need is the environment and the tools to compete with the best in the world. A Smart School gives them exactly that: the ability to learn faster, think more sharply, and adapt to a future none of us can fully predict. Mahesh and I know what Royal gave us, and I can think of no better investment than in the generation that comes after us,” said Ashroff Omar.
The Smart School initiative is designed to extend beyond introducing technology into classrooms. It will support more interactive and personalised learning, strengthen digital literacy and critical thinking, enable access to lessons and learning resources beyond the classroom, continuous teacher training and help teachers create and deliver richer educational content.
Two senior classrooms will be equipped to be collaborative teaching-learning spaces, enabling other invited schools to virtually join classroom sessions conducted at Royal College, as they are conducted. “We are deeply grateful to Mahesh Amalean, Ashroff Omar, MAS Holdings, Brandix Lanka Ltd. and the John Keells Foundation for making the Smart School Project a reality.
Their generous contribution will transform the way our students learn and enable our teachers to create more interactive and meaningful learning experiences. This is an investment in the future of our students and will continue to benefit generations of Royalists to come,” said Mr. Athula Wijewardhana, the Principal of Royal College.
“This initiative reflects the enduring commitment of Old Royalists to strengthen the institution that shaped them. We sincerely thank Deshamanya Mahesh Amalean, Ashroff Omar, MAS Holdings and Brandix Lanka Ltd. for their visionary support. Their contribution is an investment in future generations—not only of Royalists, but of students across Sri Lanka.” said Pasan Wanigasekara, the Secretary of the Royal College Union.
The RCU also intends to use the experience gained through the Royal College transformation to develop a practical Smart School “playbook.” In a subsequent phase, this model could be adapted to support selected schools across Sri Lanka through partnerships with education authorities, donors, technology providers and other stakeholders.