GODHRA, DECEMBER 31 For two years, the shadow of the burning train may have seeped into all greeting cards from this town but Sharadbhai Shah is changing that. To Godhra, post-Godhra, add another qualifier—a place at the centre of an education revolution.

Shah is the man behind Godhra Sarvajanik Shikshan Mandal (GSSM) School, which has brought the best of modern education—including computers for each class, LCD projectors, air-conditioned lecture halls, and a software that is now being copied across the state—to a town where few have heard of, let alone expect, such facilities.

And unlike city schools, it charges primary students just Rs 125 per month, and secondary students Rs 50 (this fees has to be kept low as per state government standards).Shah himself never studied beyond Class X. So as president and managing trustee of the Mandal, his first aim is to ensure that children of his town are not denied the higher education he himself couldn’t complete. ‘‘I wanted to be a doctor, but financial constraints stood in the way,’’ he says. ‘‘An uncle offered to lend us money on interest, but my family couldn’t have borne that burden. Now I won’t rest till every child in this town and in the Panchmahals district gets an opportunity to study.’’ The school was set up in 1910 by Manilal Mehta, but the Mandal took it over in 1955. Shah, who runs a billing business for the electricity board, has been associated with the Mandal since 1956. It was in 1985, however, that he started managing the school and became the one-man army behind its transformation from a small-town school to one with the most modern facilities for its 4,500 students. ‘‘I always dreamt of providing the best education at affordable price, so whenever I went to visit relatives abroad, I’d film the schools there,’’ Shah says. The bright murals at his school are replicated from the ones in Paris, while the idea of locker rooms for students was borrowed from schools he visited in the US. Shah was also struck by the audio-visual aids which have been in use in classrooms abroad for two-three decades. The school now has 13 computer labs with 545 computers linked by a local area network. There are computers and 29-inch television sets in each classroom, lecture halls equipped with LCD projectors and 61-inch television screens, and a library of educational CDs, VCDs and DVDs. The school even has a sound-proof studio for recording and digitising syllabi. Designing the software was a pioneering effort, says Jaswinder Singh, director of Academy for Computer Training (ACT), Ahmedabad. Programmers worked in collaboration with designers from the Designmate group to convert material from textbooks into presentations, in 3-D format wherever possible. The material is accessible on each classroom computer and TV screen, as also in the labs.

The presentations generate interest in studies among students, says Sudeep Goel, a higher-secondary physics teacher. ‘‘The software worked out so well that we plan to use it as a model for other schools,’’ informs Singh. ‘‘Already, similar software designed by us is in use in 40 schools in the state.’’ The parents are more than happy. Itesh Darji, whose two children study in the school, says: ‘‘For the fees they charge the school is very good—and considering that it’s available in a town like Godhra.’’ Sometimes carrying on with the fees the school charges becomes a bit of a stretch. But Shah is in no rush to hike it. Instead, the trust relies on other means to raise money—donations, rent from properties and profits from businesses. Recently, some alumni settled in the US donated electronic equipment worth $35,000. The trust also borrowed Rs 1.16 crore from Bank of Baroda, much of which remains to be paid back. ‘‘The idea is why have inequality in education. Why should a child from Godhra fail in competition against a child from Mumbai or Bangalore?’’ Shah says.

Dharmendra Shah, Principal of the primary section, adds: ‘‘We want to make our students able enough to compete with the best in the world.’’ From the looks of it, they are getting there.