Musaeus College is a Buddhist private girls' school in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The school is named after its founding principal, Marie Musaeus Higgins (1855 – 10 July 1926) from Wismar, Germany, who served as the school's principal from 1891 to 1926. Musaeus College provides primary and secondary education to more than 6,500 girls from ages 3 to 18, and is managed by a board of trustees. The school's motto is "Follow the Light".
Early history
The origin of the school can be traced to the Women's Education Society of Ceylon, whose mission was to improve educational opportunities for girls, with instruction in English along with Buddhist principles. It had the backing of the Buddhist Theosophical Society, which previously founded the Ananda College for boys along similar lines. With help and guidance from Peter De Abrew and Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, they founded the Sangamitta Girls' School at Tichborne Place, Maradana, around 1890, and wanted a European lady as its Principal. Colonel Olcott found a suitable candidate in Kate F. Pickett, the daughter of Elise Pickett, President of the Melbourne Theosophical Society. Pickett arrived in Colombo on 10 June 1891 and had apparently settled into life in the school's boarding house when she was found on the morning of 24 June 1891 drowned in a well in the school grounds.
Marie Musaeus Higgins, after whom the college was subsequently named, was the daughter of Theodor Musaeus, Chief Justice of Wismar in Mecklenburg, Germany. After having graduated and obtaining the title of Frau Professor, she proceeded to the United States of America and was engaged in educational work there. She married Anton Higgins, an engineer in the US army and a Theosophist. He died less than four years later. Following an advertisement by Col. Olcott in The Path (the magazine of the Buddhist Theosophical Society), she left for Ceylon, arriving on 15 November 1891.
The Musaeus Buddhist Girls' School started in a very simple and modest ‘mud hut’ which served both as living and teaching quarters with 12 students. The ‘hut’ was replaced by a brick building in the year 1895 as a result of a donation from Mr. Wilton Hack. He was a recent convert to Theosophy and around 1892, while in Colombo on his way home to Australia, Hack observed the work being carried out by Higgins ("Sudu Amma" to her students), and decided to become involved in its development. He was to remain on the board of trustees until his death in 1923.
The lack of sufficient classrooms had stood in the way of Government assistance. Whenever Higgins had approached Mr. J. B. Cull, Director of Public Instruction, for funds she was told that without a permanent building she was ineligible for a Grant. Once the fine new hall with its upper storey to serve as a teaching hall and extra dormitory was completed, an annual Government grant to the school followed.
Teachers’ Training School
The demand for women teachers for Sinhalese Buddhist Girls’ schools being great, Higgins was approached by the Manager of those schools to open a Training College to train women students as school teachers. This work was begun in 1908 with the approval and sanction of the Government. This college was now sending out annually a number of trained teachers as Head-Mistresses of Buddhist Sinhalese Girls’ Schools, situated out of Colombo. There was a Practicing School attached to the Training College. Not only did it form and indispensable adjunct to the college, but also the mean of giving a free education in Sinhalese to the children in the neighborhood. The work of the Musaeus Buddhist Girls’ College was thus confined to:-
English College
Kindergarten on Modern Lines
Training College for women (Sinhalese) Practising School (Sinhalese) Works on Buddhism
Higgins’ historical studies induced her to study Buddhism and in her later years Higgins was engaged in the task of compiling books on Buddhism “Poya Days” and “Jataka Mala” (a translation of the Jataka Stories) are two of her popular books. Higgins had planned to issue a series of plays called “Ceylon Historical Plays”. She published one or two of them and they were even acted out under her own supervision by the girls of Musaeus College. Her simplicity of style had a special appeal to children for whom most of her books were written.