Kumar’s Super 30 has an astonishing success rate and, on average, 27 to 28 of the 30 students crack the exam every year. In 2008, for the first time all the 30 students picked up for Super 30 batch qualified IIT JEE. The same was achieved in 2009, 2010 and 2017.
It all started 11 years back when Anand Kumar, a Mathematician, dreamt of bringing students from underprivileged society closer to their aspirations. Even the most optimistic people would have shunned the thought but Anand Kumar kept his belief that success does not differentiate between rich or poor. The talent just needs to be shown the right path and success will eventually follow. So inclined was Anand Kumar towards Mathematics that in 1992 he initiated a Mathematics Society named ‘Ramanujam School of Mathematics’. During the course of time he realised that several commendable and exceptionally brilliant students failed at IIT JEE. The reasons for their failure could be attributed to poverty and lack of devotion which stood in the way of these students.
We know that IIT JEE is the most stringent competitive exam in India mandatory for entry to world renowned Indian Institute of Technology. It requires years of preparation and dedication to crack this exam. Anand Kumar realised that though these students from impoverished families had the talent but they lacked devotion to clear IIT JEE. This thought led him to form a group of 30 students from socially backward families and structured his first batch of Super 30 in 2002. These students were provided exemplary training essential to crack JEE along with lodging facilities for the whole year. Their hard work and perseverance bore fruit when eighteen out of the thirty students cracked IIT JEE 2013. Super 30 achieved what it aimed at and so did the students. Now the whole country knew about this special batch that Anand Kumar ran from a modest town.
Since then every year, his institute would hold a competitive test to select 30 students from the economically backward sections for the Super 30 program, in which he would tutor them, provide them with study materials and took care of their lodging for a year absolutely free.
Most of the 30 students managed to get into the IITs or other prestigious institutions. Anand was offered financial help from governmental and private agencies, both national and international, but the professor declined them as he wanted to sustain Super 30 through his own efforts.
Source: Times Applaud
