Bihar’s Super 30 adds 27 more stars to IITs

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When Diwakar Kumar’s father, a poor truck mechanic in Munger in Bihar, first knew of the difference between IIT and ITI and tried not to use the two interchangeably while speaking, he thought his son could never make it to the hallowed IITs. But the dreams of the father and the son came true on Friday.

With the free coaching he got at the Super 30 institute for underprivileged students in Patna, Kumar cracked the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE) 2012.

There was raucous celebration at the renowned institute in the Bihar capital’s grubby Mithapur area soon after results came out on Friday morning as 27 out of its 30 students had cracked the tough competitive entrance examination, bringing glory to its founder and educationist Anand Kumar for the 10th consecutive year.

“My father did not believe it for a moment that I was selected to study at one of the IITs. But he was overjoyed to learn of my success and instantly spoke his blessings for Anand sir,” said Diwakar. “Without Super 30, our IIT dreams would have remained just dreams due to my family’s poverty,” said the teenager.

Among Super 30’s successful students this year are the wards of a marginal farmer, a daily-wage labourer, a security guard and a grocer. These students got free food and accommodation at Super 30 along with the free teaching and guidance from Anand Kumar, a mathematics wizard who set up the institute in 2003 to help meritorious students from socio-economically weaker sections crack the IIT entrance examinations.

Ayush Tiwari and Abhshek Ranjan, sons of marginal farmers from Medininagar in Jharkhand and Madhubani in Bihar respectively, said they could never have made it to the IITs without Super 30. Tiwari’s all-India rank was 1,762 while Ranjan’s was 2,110.

“Hard work and dedication from both sides has made it possible yet again,” said Anand Kumar, who was named in Time magazine’s list of the ‘Best of Asia’ in 2010 and earned international acclaim. Income generated from his Ramanujam School of Mathematics, which charges fees from its students, is used to support Super 30.

In 2008, 2009 and 2010, all 30 students of Super 30 cracked the IIT entrance exam. Last year 24 students cleared the entrance exam.