BeyondHeadlines Special Correspondent
Patna: Twenty-four students from underprivileged sections, of the total 30, have this time cracked the IIT-JEE from the ‘Super-30’ founded by mathematics wizard Anand Kumar.
“We were lucky to be here, and we did not want to waste much time. It was like a family, where we the 30 students ate, slept and studied together,” said an emotional but delighted Ayush Agrawal, a student of Bihar’s ‘Super 30’, after clearing the barrier of the Joint Entrance Examination for taking admission in India’s most prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IITs). Ayush has recently lost his father and has taken the responsibility for his family.
- File photo of Anand Kumar
Satisfied Anand told BeyondHeadlines: “It is again a good news that this year, 24 out of the 30 students made it to the IIT-JEE. In the last three years, all 30 from Super 30 had qualified. This takes the total number of Super 30 students who have qualified for the IIT-JEE in the last nine years to 236.”
Be it the ward of a roadside vendor, mobile mechanic, marginal farmer or truck driver and Group IV employee, all managed to successfully crack the IIT-JEE barrier, under the expert guidance of Anand and his dedicated team.
“All of them have managed to successfully chase their IIT-JEE dreams at Super 30 with their commitment and hard work,” he said.
“As a teacher, I am happy for what they have achieved, for it will make a lasting difference to their lives. It underlines the cause Super 30 has been championing for the last nine years. The smiles on their faces give me the biggest award. But I feel bad for the six who could not crack the barrier,” he added.
Without taking any credit of the major success of his students, Anand, who was mobbed by his students after the results, said it was an outcome of students’ hard work and single-point devotion.
“Hard work, proper guidance and supervision are the secrets of our success. We teach students to eat, sleep, walk and talk only IIT,” he said.
In 2003, the first year of the institute, 18 students made it to the IITs. The number rose to 22 in 2004 and to 26 in 2005. In 2007 and 2006, 28 students made it through ITT-JEE. In 2008, for the first time 30 students cracked the exam, a feat which was repeated in 2009 and 2010.
The fabled Super 30 is an institution, having featured in different prominent world publications as the unique Indian experiment, where Anand Kumar grooms 30 poor but talented students after screening for nearly one year with free coaching, accommodation and food.
The Time magazine featured it in the list of ‘The Best of Asia 2010’.
The magazine noted that about 230,000 students appear for the IIT-JEE every year, but just about 5,000 succeed.
Students from poor families have to pass a competitive test to get into Super 30 and then commit themselves to a year of 16 hours a day study routine. Coaching, food and accommodation is free for the students.
Not taking any financial help from the government or any organisation, Anand supports Super 30 from what he earns from his Ramanujam School of Mathematics, which has students who can afford to pay fees.
For Kanwar Barister Singh from village Gairwar in Jaunpur, it was his second attempt at the IIT-JEE.
Away from his village for nearly a year, he was overwhelmed by emotions when he saw his result on the computer monitor at Anand’s house in a modest locality of Meethapur in Patna.
And there are many like Kanwar with some from Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, but all having taken their examination from Patna.
Among others from Bihar, basking in the IIT-JEE glory, courtesy Super30, is Abhay Kumar from East Champaran, whose father is a clerk in an un-aided school.
He credited the atmosphere at Super 30 and the innovative teaching style of Kumar, which he will not forget.
“I and my sister used to give tuition to small students to sustain the family, before I got selected for Super 30. My mother must be happier than me,” Kumar told BH.
After engineering, Kumar plans to sit for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) to help poor students like him.
He added that the changed pattern of the exam this year could be a reason why his entire batch could not bag the coveted IIT seats.
Incidentally, every time in the past three years all the 30 students of a single batch had qualified for the IIT-JEE.
