A School Without Walls @ Anand Shanti Niketan
Anand Shanti Niketan started by a 9-year-old in Murshidabad 16 years ago, now has 500 village students, but lack of government support has stopped it from growing into a full-fledged school
The house of joyful learning is the name given by Babar Ali to Anand Shiksha Niketan, a community school for 500 students in Murshidabad, West Bengal, as this is where village girls and boys get mainstream education till class VIII. In that area, this was the only school for girls.
In 2002, when Babar was 9-year-old, he started teaching his sister under a tree in the backyard of his house. This prompted other kids to join him. Babar was one of the few village boys who attended a school, 10 km from their village, so he would teach his sister and other kids whatever he studied in the school.
The trust of the villagers grew, and soon, Babar had made school at his makeshift setup in the village. He soon acquired the sobriquet of 'youngest headmaster of India', as described in a documentary by BBC. Now Babar's school has grown, but it is yet to get government recognition and other aids to function smoothly.
For long, most children in the village helped their parents in making the ends meet, and education was nothing less than a luxury. "When I started teaching children, most parents would ask if learning alphabets and numbers, will fetch them one square meal?," recalls Babar. "It was very difficult to motivate children, who spent most of their time grazing cattle in the forest to come and study," he adds.
Getting the girls to school was a bigger challenge. "Since most students here are first time learners, the process starts from making understand the importance of education. We need to look beyond bookish knowledge and impart practical knowledge among children. I hope that this kind of system is taught in schools across the country so that we have not just graduates but also well-trained, sensitised citizens," said Babar, who thinks there is still a long way to go to achieve his 100% literacy dream for his village.
The school, currently has 500 students and many have gone ahead to take undergraduate courses outside the village. Babar, himself is into studies, as is currently pursuing MA in History after finishing MA in English Literature.
For him, his biggest achievement is that six girls taught by him, are attending UG course in University of Kalyani, a 170 kilometres journey from the village. Yet another student of Babar, now teaches in the same school. A TED Fellow now, Babar has many feathers to his hat, as he is featured in Forbes Under 30 list in the social entrepreneur category in Asia region.
Financial aids and technical support to set-up computers in his school has come from US based NGO - Opportunity Education. However, not much of help has come from indigenous sources. While the school has got accreditation till class VIII from the stategovernment, monetary aid is yet to reach the school.
Source | Times of India | 26th June 2018
Regards
Mr. Pralhad Jadhav
Master of Library & Information Science (NET Qualified)
Senior Manager @ Knowledge Repository
Khaitan & Co
Twitter Handle | @Pralhad161978
Mobile @ 9665911593
No comments:
Post a Comment