The will to succeed

One of the hardest tasks that aspiring youngsters in India face is entry to the prestigious Institutes of Technologies. Every year 230,000 from all over India compete for barely 5,000 seats in the country's seven IITs. With only a one in forty chance of getting in, the fact that one training school managed to get all of its 30 students selected for the IIT’s is an amazing feat, made even more amazing by the fact that all of them came from the poorest families from the poorest state in the country. Thereby hangs a tale worth telling.

Anand Kumar trains the poorest students in Bihar for entry into the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology’s. A brilliant mathematics student himself, but from a very poor background, he could not take up admission at the Cambridge University even with a fellowship as he had no means to provide for his basic expenses. But he was determined to keep the tradition of Ramanujam, the mathematics wizard, alive and started giving lessons to the street children and those in the slums in the early 90s. He started the Ramanujam School of Mathematics in the mid-90s.

The task that Anand has taken on himself is to ensure that not a single underprivileged boy or girl in Bihar (with exceptional intelligence) is deprived of an opportunity to get ahead because of their lower social and economic condition. Anand is acutely aware from his own history that to be born with an extraordinary intelligence quotient alone does not guarantee success in life. He remembers all too clearly that he had to fight hard just to get to use the superior mathematical ability he realized he possessed early on in life. "The Super 30 was born with this idea in mind," explains Anand.

Super 30 is a highly ambitious and innovative educational program which hunts for 30 meritorious talents from among the economically backward sections of the society and shapes them for India's most prestigious institution – the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). The normal group comprises wards of brick kiln worker, rickshaw puller, landless farmer, roadside vendor and the likes. During this program students are provided absolutely free coaching, lodging and food. This initiative is funded by the money Anand Kumar earns from his coaching. Founded in 2003, 18 students made it to the IIT’s in the founding year. The number rose to 22 in 2004 to 26 in 2005 to 28 in 2006 and 2007 and up to 30 in 2008 and 2009. Yes that’s correct! In the last two years, the super 30 boasts of a cent percent record with 30 out of 30 students coming through. The training school's feat is even more amazing in a state where more than two million children are out of school, and the literacy rate is a shameful 47%.

How did they do it?

The students come here to attend classes from Patna and also from faraway villages and make the journey every day by bus, on bicycles or even on foot. Those who stay in the hostels are provided free food and lodging. Each year 6,000 young boys buy the application form for Rs 60 from the Institute and submit it in the hope of making it to the Super 30. Candidates then take three separate admission tests to determine IQ, administered in ascending order of difficulty. Of the 500 short-listed initially, 30 eventually make it to the core group. The basis of the selection is that the candidate has to be from an underprivileged background. These are the poorest but with the most powerful minds. The training that lasts a year is rigorous and almost monk like in its intensity. But there are no drop outs from the program.

When you are trapped in a situation where you know you have the intelligence to conquer the world but you are crushed in by your circumstances, you'll do anything to break free. This is perhaps the true secret behind the success of Super 30. This and the commitment of a single individual to an idea.