The primary school of Vadnagar in Gujarat that Prime Minister Narendra Modi studied in will be developed as an inspirational school as part of a project named ‘Prerna: The Vernacular School’ where students from across the country will be brought for an immersive experience. The school was restored by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

This is part of a mega development plan for Vadnagar to showcase the 2,500-year-old history of the area and make it the cultural centre of Gujarat. A museum will also come up in Vadnagar along with a first-hand experience of a walkway through an excavated site. 50,000 artefacts found during the excavations, including statues and potteries, will be displayed. The Discovery Channel is airing a documentary on Vadnagar on Wednesday night.

School trip

At the school where PM Modi studied as a child, two children from every district of the country will be brought each week to cover all 750 districts in a year. The children will be here for a week and the first batch of 30 kids is expected to arrive this year. The school has been conserved as it was in the 19th century by the ASI and the restoration work started in 2018. The exercise will be funded by the Government of India.

The school has eight classrooms where these children will interact with each other and will be told about the valour and courage of India’s Param Vir Chakra winners and about the compassion of Buddha, Ashoka, and Mahatma Gandhi. Speeches of prominent leaders like Subhas Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru will be narrated to the children, sources say.

Vadnagar — An uninterrupted civilisation

Vadnagar will see a major development project through a new master plan to showcase its cultural sequence across 2,500 years and its importance as a Buddhist centre. Seven cultural periods are depicted in the excavations here.

Connecting water bodies, making green belts, a Buddhist trail and an archaeological expedition will be carried out. An Archeological Experiential Museum will come up here too.