Super-30 is the brainchild of Mr. Anand Kumar from Patna, Bihar. He trains 30 impoverished, but talented students every year to crack Joint Entrance Examination for admission into prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology.
It is an absolutely free program under ‘Ramanujam School of Mathematics’ where 30 students from economically backward families are selected each year via an entrance test. Thereafter, these students are given free meals and lodging for one year along with rigorous training for JEE Main.
Since its inception in 2002, this program has generated hundreds of IITians from an extremely poor background and had a success rate of 100% in three consecutive years! Out of 450 students over 15 years, 396have been able to make it to various IITs all over India.
The Beginning!
Anand Kumar is a mathematician and his love for the subject drove him to start his own institute‘Ramanujan School of Mathematics’ 25 years ago. There he taught students for various competitive exams at a nominal fee.
Even though the fee was nominal he soon realized that many prospective students are being left out of the competition due to their poor financial background. Enter Super-30, a revolutionary idea that broke through the hype of educational institutes who train students in exchange for hefty coaching fees for different competitive examinations.
“Want to join IIT? Join Super-30 and get expert guidance for JEE Main 2018”
All About Super 30
A student to be eligible for Super-30 has to secure a minimum of 60% in their class 12th examination from a recognized board and should have the poor financial background.One can download the application form from the website and submit it to the nearest Super-30 centre. The cost of application is INR 70 only.
The entrance, usually held in the month of May, has 45 objective type questions equally from Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics. The test is of one and half hour with negative marking and has a difficulty level of AIEEE (All India Engineering Entrance Examination). Results are published after 2 weeks. The candidates are called for Personal Interviews based on their score and top 30 students get to be a part of the life-changing program.
Super-30 is one of the most acclaimed programs in the world and its founder is one of the great minds whose work has earned him an opportunity to study at the Cambridge University, which he failed to attend due to financial constraints.
But as fate would have it, Kumar has been invited to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University to talk about his mentoring strategy. Discovery Channel has showcased his work in a documentary. He has spoken of his experiences at IIM Ahmadabad, different IITs, University of British Columbia, Tokyo University and Stanford University.His work is recognized all around the globe and has his name in the Limca Book of Records(2009) for his contribution in helping poor students pass IIT-JEE by providing them free coaching.
Awards Earned!
Time magazine included Super-30 in the list of ‘Best of Asia 2010’. Newsweek Magazine had included it in the list of four most innovative schools in the world. In April 2011, Kumar was selected by Europe’s magazine Focus as “one of the global personalities who have the ability to shape exceptionally talented people.” He was named by UK based magazine Monocle among the list of 20 pioneering teachers of the world. He was also honored by the government of British Columbia, Canada and by the ministry of education of Saxony, Germany.
Kumar was awarded the ‘MaulanaAbulKalam Azad ShikshaPuraskar’ by Bihar Government and the Prof ‘YashwantraoKelkarYuvaPuraskar 2010’ by AkhilBharatiyaVidyarthiParishad (ABVP) in Bangalore. He was conferred with an ‘Honorary Doctorate of Science’ (DSC) by Karpagam University, Coimbatore, and the prestigious ‘Ramanujan Mathematics Award’ at the Eighth National Mathematics Convention in Rajkot. Recently the Super-30 founder was awarded the ‘RashtriyaBalKalyan Award’ by the Honourable President Shri RamnathKovind.
The buzz of his success has not failed to reach Bollywood as a biopic on Anand Kumar and his Super-30 has been announced which will soon go into production.
Anand Kumar with his team of teachers and help from his family has made an exceptional contribution to the field of education. He emphasizes on perseverance and positive approach as crucial elements for success.
The one year coaching under him and other faculty members not only focuses on learning Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry but also about life, the changes they can bring in themselves and in the world.
And The Impact..
The program encourages some of the brilliant minds to learn together, hence peer learning is a part of the curriculum. There is no other distractions and students study for up to 10 hours a day striving for excellence.“When I met Mr. Kumar, I knew I had come to the right place and once again found the strength to dream of IIT. All we did was study,” reminisced Suresh Ram of IIT Delhi and former student of Super-30.
Kumar highlights the need to have a strong hold over basic concepts instead of rote memorization and imbibes the learning experience in the lifestyle of the students, quite contrary to convention. The team teaches every concept in the form of a story, which predominantly has two characters. Vicky, one of the characters, attired in suit is from a strong financial background, while hole, on the other hand, is from financially weaker strata of the society. When asked to solve a problem, Vicky quickly solves it giving out a traditional solution, whereas Dholu comes up with 7-8 solutions of the same problem using the ‘How and Why’ technique. This makes maths more interesting to the students and grants them the confidence to transcend others.
“He used to teach us in a manner that even after 2 hours of his class we felt relaxed. He is very kind-hearted and down to earth. His life story inspired me and many others who studied with me and showed us the right way to grow and survive in this competitive world. I consider him as my Guru,” said Rahul Gupta, one of his students from Super-30.Kumar continues to speak about his mission and success in various motivational talk shows and institutions educating and inspiring more than those 30 lucky students.
Although national and international organizations have offered funding and donations for Super-30’s students, Kumar has declined these offers and continues to fund the program using the fees he receives from the Ramanujan School of Mathematics. He wants to propagate that finances should never act as barriers and that passion is the driving force towards success.
