Bihar’s Super 30 spins magic again: 25 students realize their IIT dreams!

Anand Kumar has spun magic again. The mathematician who began Super 30 in Patna, Bihar, in 2002 and since then is training students from poor backgrounds to crack one of the toughest exams in the world, has scored high this time too.

Super 30 has got 25 students of its current batch to enter the prestigious IIT schools.And guess what sets this exam apart from Super 30’s previous successes? It was the secret, but successful inclusion of a 31st student! Sujith Kumar, who failed the exam last year stayed with Anand Kumar this year and cracked the exam too.

Anand Kumar started Super 30 in 2002 to help lesser privileged students gain access to the highly regarded science degree. These talented students would otherwise have no means to get into regular coaching considering the fees. Hardly able to make ends meet, their parents are extremely thankful to Anand for getting their children to somewhere they couldn’t have managed themselves.

To turn the stay during coaching into a home away from home, Anand and his family cook for the kids and take care of their other expenses and lodging. Due to the high success the group is seeing, volunteers all over the world are looking to finance the venture. But Anand is adamant on continuing on his own efforts and refuses to take financial help.

Super 30 has also seen international acclaim with TIME magazine listing the group in its ‘Best of Asia 2010′ series and President Obama’s personal envoy stamping the “best” institute in the country tag on them.

Anand Kumar looks like anything but a proud teacher. He continues to look the modest man he is, preparing to up the next batch. He has been awarded the Abul Kalam Azad Shiksha Puraskar, the highest award by the Government of Bihar, and has an inspiring story that led him to being one of the greatest teachers of mathematics.

Anand  couldn’t afford to get into any of the premier institutions himself, so he studied in a Hindi medium school . He eventually developed a passion for maths and submitted papers to international magazines.

When he was accepted for a course in the prestigious Cambridge university, he couldn’t go due to lack of means and his father’s demise. But this brave young man was determined to take education to those who couldn’t reach education by themselves. Under the banner of  Ramanujan School of Mathematics he trains 30 students every year to crack the elite examination that most manage to only dream about.

Hats off to this man who is helping the underprivileged realize their dreams and teaching them the true meaning of ‘If there is a will, there is a way’.

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