From ‘Jharkhandi words’ to learning not to waste food: lessons from an experiential school in Gujarat’s Vadnagar

It was astatine Vadnagar Kumar Shala Number 1 — portion of the aforesaid analyzable arsenic the caller Prerana schoolhouse — that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was admitted to Class 1 connected June 13, 1956.

At the Prerana school, each batch has 20 students from 10 districts — 1 lad and a miss aged betwixt 14 and 17 years per territory — who enactment connected field and learn, among different things, what it means to unrecorded with others from antithetic cultures and illustration antithetic cuisines successful the mess. The students besides bash yoga each time and sojourn the section humanities sites.

Though 43 batches of 860 students from Classes 9-12 person already spent a week each astatine Prerana since it opened past year, connected January 15, 2024, the field was formally inaugurated connected January 16 this twelvemonth by Home Minister Shah, accompanied by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

Eight mentors, selected from Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS), Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) and different institutions, invited the caller batch astatine Prerana connected Sundays, said officials. The students, they add, permission from Gandhinagar Railway Station connected Saturdays. All costs for the programme are borne by the Ministry of Education.

“Barring Nagaland and Kerala, astir states person been covered successful these 43 batches from 430 districts. No territory has been repeated truthful far. By the extremity of this year, we anticipation to screen each the districts crossed the state via 37 much batches,” says Pankaj Deshmukh, director, Prerana.

Inside the Prerana building, the medication block, and the laser and 3D printing laboratory are located connected the crushed floor. From the reception, which has a monolithic embossed sheet featuring Lord Buddha’s disciples surrendering astatine their guru’s feet, a staircase leads to the eating country and the shared pupil accommodations connected the archetypal floor. Along the stairs bent paintings of the Saptarshi oregon the 7 seers — Charaka, Agastya, Aryabhatta, Panini, Patanjali, Kanad and Thiruvalluvar — who are said to person made important contributions successful the tract of education.

The analyzable besides includes the refurbished Vernacular School building, which is connected to the Prerana gathering via the terrace. PM Modi’s aged school, which has been refurbished, was a portion of the Vernacular School. Sessions for students are held astatine this analyzable passim the week.

The refurbished Gujarat government-run Vernacular School, wherever PM Modi received his simple acquisition successful Vadnagar. (Express Photo by Bhupendra Rana)

Located successful Darbargadh, the highest constituent successful Mehsana district’s Vadnagar, Vernacular School was established successful 1888 by Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad of the erstwhile Baroda state, which included Mehsana, astatine a outgo of Rs 16,023. In 2019, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) started restoring the school.

The play programme starts from Monday, with students doing regular yoga and pranayam sessions astatine 5.15 am. Other activities during the week see a sojourn to the redeveloped Vadnagar Railway Station to spot the “tea stall that PM Modi helped his begetter run”, archaeological sites crossed town, an creation gallery, the Kirti Toran (carved gateway), the Sun Temple successful Modhera and an old-age location tally by a spot that counts among its members the PM’s eldest brother, Sombhai Modi.

For Atul Baweja, a Class 10 pupil astatine Mahatma Gandhi Government School successful Rajasthan’s Hanumangarh, the facilities astatine Prerana were connected a par with those astatine a “five-star hotel”. He gushes, “I beryllium to a agrarian area, truthful I was thrilled to spot the highways, six-lane roads and sectors successful Gandhinagar.”

But Suvordhana Das, 17, a pupil of Class 12 astatine DPS ONGC, Nazira, successful Assam’s Sivasagar, says his archetypal time astatine Prerana was “tough”. She adds, “The archetypal time was hard for maine since everyone present is from crossed India. The language, nutrient and habits were antithetic too. But now, we each person learnt a fewer phrases successful different languages.”

Wansouk Tripura, 14, a Class 9 pupil from JNV North Tripura, says his week astatine Prerana taught him “not to discarded nutrient anymore”. He adds, “Since the messiness has nutrient from each state, we are asked to sensation everything successful tiny quantities to debar wastage. When we arrived, our mobile phones were deposited. We would beryllium fixed our phones lone for 5-10 minutes aft meal regular to talk to our parents.”

Director Deshmukh says the programme near him “pleasantly surprised”. “We person had children, adjacent mentors, from places arsenic acold arsenic Arunachal Pradesh and Telangana who person ne'er stepped extracurricular their villages. We would wonderment what quality a one-week league would bring astir successful their behaviour, but we were wrong,” helium says, adding that they person been collecting feedback from students to assistance them with their enlargement plans.

Mentors Anita Gupta from Uttar Pradesh and Richa Tiwari from Haryana, who besides contributed to the programme’s contented development, hold with Deshmukh. “We ne'er imagined the interaction the week-long programme would person connected students erstwhile it was started a twelvemonth ago. Though we are not teaching them thing caller here, determination has been a affirmative alteration successful their behaviour,” they say.

On however students tin use for the programme, officials accidental portion penchant is fixed to students from authorities schools and agrarian areas, those from backstage schools person made it to Prerana too.

“After students registry connected the Prerana portal, 2 from each schoolhouse successful the territory are short-listed to vie successful the district-level Prerana Utsav. Of these, 30 students (15 boys and 15 girls) are short-listed based connected their performances successful activities, including penning essays and poems, coating oregon telling stories, connected themes similar their imaginativeness for India,” an authoritative says, adding that these 30 students past look for idiosyncratic interviews, aft which the last 20 are selected.

Meanwhile, backmost astatine Prerana, mentor Gopal Upadhyay is conducting a league connected ‘Karuna Aur Seva (compassion and service)’. Instead of simply talking astir these concepts, helium decides to outpouring a astonishment objection connected the unsuspecting students: helium throws h2o connected the level and past screams astatine a housekeeping worker implicit the mess.

Seeing the stunned faces of the children, the usually soft-spoken mentor asks them, “How did you consciousness erstwhile I scolded the employee?”

At this, a pupil admits that helium “felt similar pulling your hairsbreadth for scolding the mediocre fellow”.

A smiling Upadhyay aboriginal tells The Indian Express, “This (the demonstration) is simply a portion of our league connected Karuna Aur Seva. The students are alert of these concepts, but this workout helps them recognize the existent meanings of these concepts. When I reprimand the housekeeping staff, immoderate children get teary-eyed. Is determination a amended mode for them to recognize karuna?”