Sites in Rajkot

On Friday Stacy and I were taken around Rajkot to visit historical sites and places of interest with our host Mala, a teacher from the school and three students from grades 5 & 6. 

We visited Gandhi's old high school, the Alfred High School, once owned by the British and for wealthy children it was all taught in English it is now a Gujarati Medium school for very poor children.  They are the children of day laborers and pay about 12 rupees each 6 months (there are about 60 rupees to the dollar).  Our host told us when India gained independence there was a shift in thinking from English language schools, which was forced on the Indians by the British, to local/region languages.  Due to this shift in thinking and strong nationalism many schools taught their students in the state language.  What was interesting to find out that Ghandi was not a very good student; he was average and in some areas even below average.  It goes to show you don't need to be a good student to accomplish great things!



Our student guides
 

Brief survey of the Old Alfred High School where Ghandi attended school.  You can imagine how regal it must have looked in the late 1800's (very British in design).  Today it is known as the Mohandas Ghandi High School




Ghandi's High School
 



After our visit to the high school we were taken to Rajkumar College which is a private boys and girls school.  This is one of the oldest schools in India and was originally built for the sons of the Kings and Princes.  It is an absolutely beautiful campus and reminded me again of many British schools and grounds.  It has a newer seperate girls school opened in 2011 but they built it in the original design.  What suprised me is this is considered a very good private school but it still teaches students in the traditional Indian way; memorization and recall.  They did have a wonderful art department which surpased the ones we have seen so far, even at the Galaxy Education System.  This intrigues me as when we considered what is a "good" school we (in this case Americans) consider the whole school and I would want my children to go to a school that was well rounded not one that has only one superior area. 

Brief view of the campus

 

Traditional Dance class

After visiting the school we went to the house Ghandi grew up in here in Rajkot.