“Babar Ali: Question and Answers“, Babar’s story is an inspiration to us all. It shows us that even the smallest person can make a big difference in the world. It also teaches us the importance of education and the power of kindness and compassion. Read More Plus One English Question and Answers.
Babar Ali Question and Answers
Question 1.
What prompted Babar Ali to open his own school?
Answer:
A few extraordinary people have the understanding that in this world created by God there should be equal opportunity and privilege given to all the children of God. When they witness that the reality is not so, they try to do their best for the underprivileged. Babar Ali was one such concerned human being. Being the first generation learner, he realised that many other children in the village were not so privileged as he and decided to do something to improve their lot. That this realisation dawned upon him at such a young age as nine is remarkable. It is not an exaggeration to say that in such promptings of the mind, social activists like Babar Ali, echo the sentiments of the Buddha, who renounced the princely existence on witnessing the suffering of humanity.
Question 2.
Describe Babar Ali’s school.
OR
Describe how Babar Ali’s school functions.
Answer:
Babar Ali’s school, named Anand Siksha Niketan, is a dilapidated concrete structure with half-torn posters covering it, in the backyard of Babar’s home. It functions as a school simply because it is manned by ordinary people with an extraordinary zeal to make a difference in the lives of children who are denied the privilege of education. Like Tagore’s Shantiniketan, hundreds of children sit in the open, under the blue sky, to learn what other children would spend a fortune on. The children of the village who work as maids to cook, clean, wash clothes and dishes for their employees or as mechanics, day labourers, grass cutters and livestock herders come voluntarily to Ali’s school in the afternoon after finishing their chores.
They are taught and taken care of by 10 volunteer teachers and 60 regular attendees. As the teachers are students in the first instance, there is no generation gap between the teachers and the pupils. They are offered midday meals to. Though Babar started this with rice from his father’s field, he soon received help from well-wishers, social workers and the Government of West Bengal.
Question 3.
How is BabarAli’s school different from other schools?
Answer:
Babar Ali’s school is completely different from other formal schools. First of all, we do not have a senior person as Headmaster. It is a young boy- Babar Ali – who serves as Headmaster. The teachers are also different. All teacher volunteers are students who use their free time productively to teach the less fortunate, and the fact that they are not very senior to the students helps them in getting the attention of their pupils. People who bring pupils to school are illiterates like the fishmonger Tulu Rani Hazra. The pupils themselves are those who are keen to learn despite hardships in life. They help their families by working and earning money, but fulfil their desire for education by attending Babar Ali’s school. Finally, like Tagore’s Shantiniketan, the school has no building. The classes are conducted in the open, under the open sky. Thus the school is so unusual that it is almost unbelievable that such a school exists.
Question 4.
Why did BabarAli want to educate the poor and underprivileged children of his neighbourhood?
Answer:
Babar Ali lived in the Bhapta neighbourhood of Gangapur village in West Bengal’s Murshidabad.
The village was known for its backwardness and people of direst poverty lived there. Though there were government schools in good number which offered free education to children in the village, their parents could not afford to send their children to school because they were so poor that they did not have money to buy books, uniforms and other essential things. Instead of going to school, most of the boys in the village helped out their families by working as mechanics, day labourers, grass cutters, livestock herders etc., and the girls worked as maidservants in the village.
However, Babar Ali, being the son of a jute seller, was better off than others. He went to school and got a formal education. He wanted to bring about a transformation in the lives of the poor and the underprivileged children who worked during the day instead of going to school. Therefore Babar Ali took the initiative of opening his own school so that he could educate them.
Question 5.
What was Babar Ali’s daily routine?
Answer:
Babar Ali woke up every morning at 7 and started his day doing some household chores. Then he went by an autorickshaw first and later walked the remaining five kilometres to reach ‘Cossimbazaar Raj Govinda Sundari Vidyapeeth’, where he studied in Class XII. Soon after his classes in the school get over, he went to an afternoon school where he worked as the headmaster of a school of 800 students.
Question 6.
Why were many families unable to send their children to school though it was free?
Answer:
Though there were many schools in the village which provided free education to the children of the village, many families were unable to send their children to school because they were so poor that they could not afford to pay for books, uniforms, etc. Moreover, they sent their children to work. Their children did many small jobs and earned money to add to the family income. Whereas the boys worked as mechanics, day labourers, grass cutters and livestock herders, the girls worked as maidservants in many houses where they did the cooking, cleaning dishes and washing clothes for their employers.
Question 7.
What was the role of various people in the development of Babar Ali’s school?
Answer:
After functioning for nine years Babar Ali’s school showed remarkable progress. There were sixty regular attendees and over two hundred and twenty students on roll call and eight hundred students in total. There were ten volunteer teachers teaching grades 1 through 8. The school had been registered and recognized by the West Bengal State Government.
However, behind this stupendous achievement is seen the help and support of the society also. When the general public started spreading the news of Babar Ali’s school, many people came forward to strengthen the functioning of the school. Babar’s own teachers, monks at the local Ramakrishna Mission, sympathetic IAS officers and local cops lent their assistance in teaching the students. When he thought of the mid-day meal scheme, Babar’s father provided rice from his fields initially and later Babar’s friends in the government administration got it sanctioned and supplied it from government stock. Even women were not lagging behind in lending a helping hand.
A lady by name Tulu Rani Hazra, clad in widow’s white robes, a fishmonger by profession, played the role of an educationalist in the afternoons. She went around the villages and brought back students who had stopped attending school. She brought back nearly eighty such students. Thus one can see how Babar Ali has successfully shown to the people that with societal help and encouragement we can help ourselves even in fields like education which is generally believed to be a profession of only educated people.
Question 8.
How does BabarAli get the children to listen to him?
Answer:
Babar Ali never uses a rod or cane to discipline his students. The narrow age gap between him and his students works to his advantage. He speaks to them like a friend and so naturally they listen to him attentively.
Question 9.
What motivated Babar Ali to start his own school?
Answer:
Babar Ali is the son of Nasiruddin Sheikh, a jute seller living in Bhapta neighbourhood of Gangapur village in West Bengal’s Murshidabad. Though Babar Ali lives in a thatched house like most other people in the village, yet, he is one of the privileged ones in his village because his father is able to send Babar Ali to the village government school and give him a formal education.
Babar Ali gradually learnt that there were a great number of children who could not afford to get a formal education in the village government school because they did not have enough money to pay for uniforms, books, etc., though teaching was free. Furthermore, these children were required to support their parents with some additional income. The boys generally took up odd jobs working as mechanics, day labourers, grass cutters, livestock herders, etc., and the girls worked as maidservants in the village where they did cooking, cleaning, washing clothes and dishes for their employers and this way they earned some money and supported their parents in making a decent living.
Babar Ali, who saw this; realized that he must do something for such other children in the village. It is this inner urge to do something for the other children in the village that motivated him to start his own afternoon school which he named ‘Anand Siksha Niketan’.