St. Aloysius’ College is situated on Mount Calvary, neighbouring St. Mary’s Cathedral on one side and Sacred Heart Convent on the other.
The college was initiated in 1895 by Jesuit fathers and was named after the Jesuit Saint, Saint Aloysius Gonzaga who was regarded as the Saint of Youth by the Jesuits because of the heroic acts that he had performed when he was a young Jesuit helping Plague victims in Rome, Italy in 1587. St. Aloysius’ College, Galle, is one of many schools named after Saint Aloysius, and many exist all around the world including schools in Glasgow-Scotland, Sydney-Australia, Bangalore-India, Malta, London-England etc.
Until the Sri Lankan government carried legislation for nationalization of schools in the island in 1960, St. Aloysius’ College was administered by Jesuit Fathers and the medium of instruction was English. The first Buddhist Principal was chosen in the year 1971 and afterwards the medium of teaching was Sinhala.
Prof. Cyril Ponnamperuma – Scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Prof Ediriweera Sarachchandra – famous literalist, R.I.T Alles - Prominent Educationist, Founder of D. S. Senanayake College, Deshamanya N. U. Jayawardena - Economist, former Governor of the Central Bank of Ceylon, Dr. Marlene Abeyewardena – Gynaecologist, Dr. D. V. J Harishchandra – Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr. E. M. R de Saram – Psychiatrist, Dr. D P Athukorala – Heart Specialist, Hon. Feisal Junaid – Former Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Pakistan, Iraq, Bangaladesh are very few of their contributions to mother Sri Lanka.
In 1992 the college earned the status of national school which brought the school to a huge turning point. As a results they obtained the All Island 1st and 3rd ranks in the G.C.E. (A/L) examination in mathematics stream.
The college today provides education to nearly 1140 primary students and over 2670 secondary students from grade 1 to grade 13.
