For the second year in a row, an ambitious and innovative math and science tutoring program called Super 30 has achieved a perfect result – all 30 of its students have been accepted into the Indian Institutes of Technology. Math wizard Anand Kumar created the Ramanujan School of Mathematics in 2003 to help children from very poor families win places at the seven prestigious schools that train India’s top engineers and entrepreneurs.

Each spring, more than 200,000 Indian youths compete for the 5,000 places available at the seven schools, completing a six-hour entrance exam. Most of the students come from middle class backgrounds and have private coaching to help them prepare. But over the past six years, thanks to Ramanujan, 182 very poor children have been among those winning one of those 5,000 coveted places.

Students in the Super 30 program, whose fathers may be brick kiln workers, rickshaw pullers, landless farmers, or roadside vendors, receive free coaching, lodging and food once they are accepted. In 2003, when Super 30 began, 18 of 30 students won places; the next year, 22; in 2005, 26; and in 2006 and 2007, 28. The ‘magic moment’ came in 2008, when the result was an astonishing 30 out of 30. It was ‘a dream come true’ for Anand and his dedicated team of teachers. Super 30 has done it again in 2009 - 30 out of 30.

Most of this year’s 30 successful candidates are wards of marginal farmers, school teachers, a police constable and a grade IV government employee. This year, three girls - Namrata Jaiswal, Prerna Singh, and Bhavya – are among the number. “I have to do either computer or electrical engineering from IIT-Delhi after which I will write UPSC’s civil services exam,” a jubilant Jaiswal told the Times of India. She said she had not imagined she would get such a high ranking. The 30 students were chosen from among 3,000-odd aspirants who took the Super 30 entrance test last year.

Fascinated by mathematics since early childhood, Anand always dreamt of becoming a mathematician. While at school in 1992, he formed a Mathematics Club, ‘Ramanujam School of  Mathematics’. Encouraged by renowned teachers including Devi Prasad Verma, then the head of Patna Science College's mathematics department, Anand started a free mathematics training program open to anyone who wanted to join. Anand also contributed several problems and papers on Mathematics to various national and international journals, magazines and newspapers.

In 1994, Anand got an opportunity to pursue higher education in Cambridge University, but could not afford to attend. Having seen extreme financial hardship since childhood, he created a new form of ‘Ramanujam School of Mathematics’ to train a small group of students for various competitive examinations at a nominal fee. Those who were extremely poor and could not pay even that small amount were admitted free.

After some time, Anand decided to focus his program more significantly on poor but meritorious students, and his brother Pranav Kumar, a talented violinist, came from Mumbai to help create Super 30.

Pranav was entrusted with the responsibility of managing Super 30. After a thorough screening, 30 poor but talented students were shortlisted. Making all the arrangements for 30 students was not so easy at first, but Anand’s family gave him much help. Anand generated finances by tutoring students of other schools, while his mother, Jayanti Devi, cooked food for the students.

For the students, there was only one goal – to study hard. The first year’s results came as a big surprise, motivating Anand and his team, which included which included Patna's deputy director general of police, Abhayanand, who taught physics, to put in more and more effort.

Super 30 is self-supporting, generating its own revenue by running evening classes for intermediate level students interested in various engineering tests, and charging a nominal fee for the entrance test that is less than 15% of any other institutions. The program does not receive any financial support from government or private agencies.

This year, Anand told the Times of India that the program will be expanding. “We would now be picking up 90 students every year for free coaching as well as food and lodging facilities,” Anand said – but name Super 30 will remain. The entrance test forms, costing Rs 60 each, now will be sold by the United Bank of India.

The idea has caught on in Patna. Last year, two other coaching institutes, Rahmani Foundation and Triveni Super 30, were created with Abhayanand's help, also offering free coaching and free food to deserving poor students, and both claimed to have good results this year with all of its students also cracking the JEE.

Having shaped students for six years now, Anand now wants to start the talent hunt a bit earlier than Plus Two stage. He wants to set up schools for poor children that would provide innovative teaching to develop their interest in Mathematics and Science subjects at an early age, shaping them for different Olympiads and other competitions and developing the inquisitiveness that is vital for science and math education.

Contact: Super 30, Ramanujan School of Mathematics,

Shanti Kutir, Chandpur Bela, Patna 800 001, India

Email.

This story was prepared from information on the Super 30 website, a story entitled 30/30 again at Patna’s Super 30, by Pranava K. Chaudhary, Times of India, 26 May 2009, and a story by Manjeet Kripalani entitled An Awakening in Bihar – How one rural school helps prepare poor youths for the Indian Institutes of Technology; Business Week, August 21, 2006, that was circulated by the Daily Good. The pictures come from the Super 30 website; Anand is pictured teaching in the photograph at the bottom of the story.