A model put up for National Education Day at Gandhi Maidan in Patna. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Nov. 7: Visitors to Gandhi Maidan can witness the last lap of preparations for National Education Day, which will be celebrated on November 11.

Labourers are busy giving finishing touches to the structures that have been erected on the green patch. As the theme of National Education Day this year is “Quality education”, the venue has also been decorated in a special way. The ruins of the ancient Nalanda University have been replicated at the maidan.

Sources said the replica of the historic site has special significance, as the state government is trying to revive Nalanda as a seat of learning.

Umesh Sharma, the designer of the site, told The Telegraph: “At the entrance of the venue there will be design resembling village handicraft. The main entrance has been prepared with bamboo and jute. It will be designed with soop, daura (basket) and bamboo fans. The main entrance will also have a design depicting students going to school. The idea behind the theme is that more and more number of students, mainly from villages, have started to go to school.” National Education Day is celebrated on the birthday of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the first Union education minister.

Near the main entrance, a park will be set up. It will be called Newton Park. In the park, there will be pictures of Issac Newton and his theory of gravity. “Students can learn about the Newton’s laws of motion through pictorial representations at the park,” said a source.

This year, the state human resource development department will organise a national science exhibition, where students from all over the country will take part. “Around 250 schoolchildren from other states have been invited to take part in the science exhibition. Around 1,500 students from state will also showcase their scientific temper at the exhibition,” said a source in the department. “It will be the first national-level science exhibition in Bihar in more than a decade.”

At the entrance to the science exhibition, a design of a spacecraft has been put up. Cutouts of Sunita Williams and Kalpana Chawla have also been put up on both sides of the entrance. Around 1 lakh paintings would be put up at the venue. Schoolchildren from all over the country have sent their paintings for the science exhibition.

Sharma said: “The paintings are related to various scientific principles and day-to-day use of science.”