Thane’s renowned cardiologist Dr Vijay Surase to transform village schools to smart schools

Thane’s renowned cardiologist, Dr Vijay Surase, who is associated with the Jupiter Hospital, has transformed a small municipal school in his village in Maharashtra into a smart school. The Maharashtra government has also initiated a scheme to upgrade 66,000 schools in the state through CSR funds, thanks to Dr Surase’s efforts. He also plans to upgrade other rural schools.

Children of Deolana Debegaon, a small village in the Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar district of Marathwada, no longer have to walk five kilometres to attend a bigger, better school. Due to the tireless efforts of Dr Surase, the municipal school in his village will now be converted into a smart school.

Dr Surase, a Maharashtra Gaurav Puraskar 2023 awardee, was born in Deolana Debhegaon but never completed his education in the village. He moved to the city with his family since there were not enough educational facilities. But whenever he gets a chance, he goes to his village. He established a Trust and started working to improve his village’s schools. Later, he realised that this was not just a problem affecting the schools and children of his village but the whole of Maharashtra.

Dr Surase then started a continuous correspondence with the state government and suggested CSR fund support for upgrading all Zilla Parishad schools across the state. The Maharashtra government finally issued a GR in September this year to develop municipal schools under the CSR Fund. Nearly 66,000 schools are now set to become smarter through the “adopt a school” scheme. Dr Surase is the first to start and has almost completed half of the reconstruction of the dilapidated school in his village.

Acknowledging Dr Surase’s constant follow-up with the government, Deputy Secretary Prashant Badgeri wrote a letter praising Dr Surase’s efforts and repeatedly persuading him to upgrade state schools with CSR assistance.