A rural school in Vadodara district which has been operating in the foothills of Pavagadh in Waghodia taluka since 1991, provides education to the students by providing training in farming and tree plantation in the institute premises as well as computer training in advanced computer labs. Vivekananda Uttar Buniyadi Vidyalaya of Vankuva village was established by Anuben Thakkar and Dr. Vikram Patel and the board of trustees of Muni Sevashram Trust, Goraj. The school ranks third among the best schools in the state behind the state-of-the-art urban schools and received an incentive prize of Rs 2 lakh. On Tuesday Gujarat education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama honored the school. Following the ideals of Gram Swaraj of Mahatma Gandhi, this school has adopted timely modernization. The use of solar energy has increased but the school has been using solar panels for cooking and heating for students since about a decade ago.

Author-Shlok Talati