Babar Ali
Giver: | Individual |
---|---|
Receiver: | Individual or unstructured/informal group |
Gift: | Time, Voice/Advocacy |
Approach: | Philanthropy |
Issues: | 4. Quality Education |
Included in: | Philanthropy and Education, Social Entrepeneurship |
Babar Ali is a pioneering Indian educator and human rights activist. His school, Ananda Siksha Niketan — Hindi for “Home of Joyful Learning” — provides tuition-free education to the children of the Murshidabad district in West Bengal. Ali’s pedagogy is rooted in the writings of the Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda, who believed that service to others was vital to a thriving modern India. “Teaching can never be compared to any other job in the world,” Ali told the Telegraph (India) in September 2022. “I believe a teacher can build a nation and nurture its future citizens.”
Babar Ali was born in 1993. He grew up in Bhabta village, West Bengal, and received his early education at a government school ten kilometers away. An avid student, Ali enjoyed sharing his daily lessons with his friends and younger sister, conducting impromptu afternoon classes under a guava tree in his family’s backyard.
Walking home from school every day, Ali was struck by the sight of children his age laboring in the fields. Forced by economic necessity to work long hours picking crops or doing domestic chores, these child laborers had no time to attend classes. Even as a small boy, Ali understood that without access to education, they would struggle to lift themselves out of material poverty as adults.
Determined to make a difference, Ali invited the children to attend his classes when their work was finished. In the beginning, his students wrote lessons on terra cotta tiles with salvaged pieces of broken chalk and learned to read with recycled newspapers. Ali eventually began collecting rice donations from his neighbors, which he then sold to grocers to raise money for proper alphabet primers. Ali also met with parents to assuage their concerns and persuade them to allow their children to attend his school after work.
Within a year, Ali formally launched Ananda Siksha Niketan. From the beginning, he aimed to infuse joy into the learning process, decorating his classrooms with fresh flowers and leading the students in performances. As enrollment swelled, the school earned the notice of local officials, who began raising funds for books and other materials. Ali’s efforts soon garnered global recognition, with a 2009 BBC feature describing him as the “Youngest Headmaster in the World.”
By 2015, Ali had raised enough money to relocate his school to a modern facility. That same year, the West Bengal Education Department formally recognized Ananda Siksha Niketan as a private institution of learning.
By 2023, two decades after Ali first began holding classes in his backyard, Ananda Siksha Niketan had served more than 7,000 students. The school continued to grow, even attracting several graduates to return as volunteer teachers, guided by the same principle of selfless giving that inspired their mentor.
Contributors: Maha Tazi, Stephen Meyer
Source type | Full citation | Link (DOI or URL) |
---|---|---|
Publication |
Jaiswal, Nancy. “Meet the Youngest Headmaster in the world; providing free education to thousands in WB”. TelegraphIndia, 2022 |
https://www.telegraphindia.com/edugraph/career/meet-the-youngest-headmaster-in-the-world-providing-free-education-to-thousands-in-wb/cid/1884703 |
Publication |
Madhavan, Sachi; Victor, Sheba. The Youngest Headmaster in the World”, New Broadway Workbook 5, Oxford University Press, 2016. |
http://bit.ly/3EERZd9 |
Publication |
West Bengal Boy is World’s Youngest Headmaster, English Course (Communicative – Main Course Book, Central Board of Secondary Education, India. |
http://bit.ly/3EERZd9 |
Publication |
Barraclough, Carolyn; Gaynor Suzanne. Wider World Students’ Book”, Pearson |
http://bit.ly/3EERZd9 |
Website |
Basu, Sanjukta. “Lessons in hope: Babar Ali, the youngest headmaster in the world, offers students a lifeline”. Firstpost, 2006 |
https://www.firstpost.com/living/lessons-in-hope-babar-ali-the-youngest-headmaster-in-the-world-offers-students-a-lifeline-2978668.html |