Super 30 founder tells PM how to shape careers of poor students

PATNA - It was Anand Kumar’s turn to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday to give the economist some tips– not on how to crack the highly competitive Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE), the one that he gives to his ‘Super 30′ students every year, but on how the government can take a lead in running such initiatives.

The founder of Patna-based ‘Super 30′ coaching institute, which offers free coaching along with food and accommodation to 30 students from economically backward classes to help them crack the IIT-JEE, met Singh in New Delhi and requested him to come up with schemes under which coachings can be provided on the lines of Super 30 to shape the career of poor students.

“This should not be confined to IIT coaching only and can be applied to various streams. At government-run training or coaching programmes, the students can get the best teaching facilities, with free food and lodging,” Kumar told IANS over phone and e-mail from New Delhi.

Kumar also submitted to Singh some simple and workable suggestions for improvement in the secondary education system and also on reforming the IIT-JEE.

He said that the ministry of human resources development should lay emphasis on two different syllabi, keeping in view different sets of students- one for ordinary students and other for gifted students. The syllabus for bright students should provide non routine challenging problems, so that they could develop deep insight into the subjects at an early stage.

He requested him to allow poor students three chances to appear in the IIT JEE test instead of two keeping in view the vast disparity in the quality of education in cities and villages.

Kumar also suggested a number of changes in the IIT entrance system as rural students face difficulty to solve Olympiad level problems in IIT JEE entrances despite sound subject knowledge of class 12 level.

“Therefore, the problems asked in IIT JEE should be conceptual/analytical and of 12th standard,” he said.

Kumar told Singh that along with the IIT-JEE results, the extended merit list (EML) of around 50,000 students is also published.

“This becomes a tool in the hands of coaching institutes to take gullible students from rural areas for a ride. They showcase EML results as IIT-JEE results. Therefore, IIT should release EML results after a few days of IIT-JEE results,” he said.

Kumar said marking of answers in Optical Response Sheet (ORS) should be allowed to be done by black pen instead of a HB pencil to avoid tampering of ORS.

The Super 30 was started by Kumar along with Bihar’s Additional Director-General of Police Abhayanand in 2002 in Patna. But two years ago Abhayanand dissociated himself from the institute.

Kumar told Singh of his efforts at empowerment of the underprivileged by sending 182 students to IITs from the deprived sections of society.

(Imran Khan can be contacted at imran.k@ians.in)