School where Bapu studied shut, to be turned into museum
Mahatma Gandhi’s alma mater, Alfred High School in Rajkot, will soon be converted into a museum as the number of students at the institution — now known as Mohandas Gandhi Vidhyalaya — has continued to reduce over the years.
The official nod to the project was given on Monday when the Rajkot Municipal Corporation took over the building from the education department, which ran the school.
After studying there for seven years, the Mahatma passed out from the school in 1887. It was built as Alfred High School 164 years ago by the British After independ ence, the school was rechristened as Mohandas Gandhi Vidhyalaya, which offered education up to Class 12 in science stream.
“The civic body wants to turn the Mahatma’s school into a state-of-the-art museum with an aim to attract tourists from India and abroad,” Rajkot mayor Jaiman Upadhyay said.
The RMC is all set to pump in ₹15 crore for the museum which will have motion graphics, animation, augmented reality, 3D projection mapping films on Gandhi’s life, along with a sound and light show. The interactive sessions will offer commentary in seven languages for the convenience of foreign tourists.
Spread over nearly 600 square metre, the school had 40 classrooms, a library, laboratories and a sprawling playground. Despite these facilities only 109 students got enrolled in the school in the last academic session.
Rajkot Municipal Corporation maintained that of the 109 students, only 35 regularly attended the government-run school, which had a 40-member staff.
“These students have been shifted to another govern ment school, Karansinhji High School, located only 400 metre from this one,” Upadhyay told HT.
In 2011-2012, the school had 345 students, which reduced to 141 by 2015-2016.
“The school offered science stream and technical courses. For such courses, there are more options available like ITI and government polytechnics. This was the main reason that the school continued to attract fewer students,” added the mayor.
The school was founded on October 17, 1853 during the British rule. It was the first English medium school in Saurashtra region. The building, which was severely damaged in the 2001 earthquake, was renovated from the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund