Introduction

Anand Kumar is an Indian Mathematics educator best known for his Super 30 programme, which he started in Patna, Bihar in 2002, and which coaches underprivileged students for IIT-JEE, the entrance examination for the Indian Institutes of Technology. 

Sons of salesmen, vendors and daily wagers cracking the JEE Advanced — these are some of the success stories from Super 30 in Bihar and the story of the man behind it—Anand Kumar— is as motivating as well as riddled with controversies. 

What a stupendous work Teacher Anand sir has done that his biopic is being released shortly with acting maestro Hrithik Roshan. 

Students who haven't heard stories of hard work done day in and day out by Anand sir to uplift talent from economical weaker section is Godly work accomplished by him. 

 

Early Life

Being a post office Clerk’s son, he studied in Hindi medium government school where he reclaimed his deep interest in mathematics. During graduation, he submitted papers on Number theory. 

Although Anand got admission to Cambridge University but could not peruse studies there because of his father’s death and his monetary condition. Kumar studied mathematics during day time and sold papads in the evening with his mother to earn bread and butter for his family. To earn extra money he mentored students in maths. 

Since Patna University library did not have foreign journals, for his own study, he would travel every weekend on a six-hour train journey to Varanasi, where his younger brother, learning violin under N. Rajam, had a hostel room. Thus he would spend Saturday and Sunday at the Central Library, BHU and return to Patna on Monday morning. 

Super 30

He rented a classroom for Rs 500 a month, and began his own institute, the Ramanujam School of Mathematics (RSM). Within the space of year, his class grew from two students to thirty-six, and after three years there were almost 500 students enrolled. Then in early 2000, when a poor student came to him seeking coaching for IIT-JEE, who couldn’t afford the annual admission fee due to poverty, Kumar was motivated to start the Super 30 program in 2003, for which he is now well-known. 

Every year in August, since 2003, the Ramanujan School of Mathematics, now a trust, holds a competitive test to select 30 students for the ‘Super 30’ scheme. About 4,000 to 5,000 students appear at the test, and eventually he takes thirty intelligent students from economically backward sections which included beggars, hawkers, auto-driver’s children, tutors them, and provides study materials and lodging for a year. He prepares them for the Joint Entrance Examination for the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT). His mother, Jayanti Devi, cooks for the students, and his brother Pranav Kumar takes care of the management. 

Out of 270 students he tutored from 2002-2011 236 students have made an admission to IIT. All of them came from so poor background that their parents were Hawkers, Auto-drivers, laborer etc. During 2003-2009, 182 students out of 210 have made it to the IITs. In 2010, all the students of Super 30 cleared IIT JEE entrance making it a three in a row for the institution. 

Anand's work is now well received from all over the world. USA’s president obama read about Anand in TIME magazine and sent a special envoy to check the work done by him and offered all the assistance and Anand never accepts help irrespective of helper. 

Discovery Channel did broadcast a one-hour-long program on Super 30, and half a page has been devoted to Kumar in The New York Times. 

To quote Anand on Business strategy, “Start the business with whatever amount of money you have and try to avoid taking help from people. Even I have never taken any monetary help from anybody I was getting offers from not just the government of Bihar but big business tycoons. While I am grateful to all those who approached me with help I am happy the way I am – pursuing my love for mathematics.” 

Mission

The main objective of Super 30 is to track the talented bunch of students from economically impoverished sections and hone their skills by providing a conducive environment. Talent knows no boundaries. It is everywhere. All one needs is to spot talent and nurture it to let it blossom. Super 30 has done just that in the last six years and the results have been encouraging. The talented students have been given quality teaching and an open atmosphere to perform to the best of their potential. 

The students should not be handicapped by financial constraints of their families. If they have it in them, Super 30 is there to guide them where they belong, but may not reach for want of resources. 

Super 30’s mission is to help more and more students from economically poor sections reach the IITs. Having shaped students for six years now, Anand has now realized the importance of ‘catching them young’. He wants to start the talent hunt a bit earlier than Plus Two stage. If talented students are spotted at the school-level, it can work wonders. With this in mind, he wants to set up schools for poor children. The schools would provide the right impetus to the students at the right time through innovative teaching to develop their interest in Mathematics and Science subjects at an early age. It would shape them for different Olympiads and prepare them for other competitions. The thrust would be on developing inquisitiveness, so very important for science and math education. 

For the last Many years there have been repeated success stories again and again and most of the time 27-28 of Anand Kumar Super 30 has made to IIT's till date. Country is Proud of you. Goddess Saraswati is also proud of you!!!! 

Life Lessons from Anand Kumar

1. Even in difficult times you must learn to trust yourself. 

Anand Sir used to say 'Anupji ghabrane koi baat nahi mehnat badhaye rakhiye (When something looks tough, don't get worried, work harder).' He would say, 'JEE ka paper milte hi lagege mujhe to kuchh aata hi nahi. Tab aapko sochna hai sahi direction me ja rahe hain. Phir koi ek sawal se suruaat karen (When you see the JEE paper for the first time, you'll realise that you don't know anything. But you have to focus and find one question that you can start solving).' I learned from him that we should not be afraid of problems, big or small. He taught us to break our problems into smaller ones and start with the easiest, most comfortable one. 

2. Math is like sports 

Anand Sir would say that students who loved mathematics are called mathletes, much like athletes in sport. While training under him, I learned how academics is very similar to sports. It requires passion and regular practice. With time, you can perfect your skills and become a winner. 

3. Break your own record, set new ones 

For the first time after I joined Super 30, I realised that doing the same sums (problems) again and again can be really helpful. It's like breaking your own record in perfection and doing it faster than last time. Consider it like Usain Bolt breaking his own record and making a new one. It helps in real life too, where you set goals, accomplish them and set higher goals. 

4. One problem, many solutions 

Thanks to Anand Sir, I learned to solve the same problem in 7 or 9 ways. In the long run, this has been one of the greatest learnings of my life. Whether you are an entrepreneur or a working professional, you will face the same problem at different times. But you may not be able to execute the same solution all the time. I have learned from Anand Sir to think out of the box. It has helped trigger my creativity and I have been able to come up with new innovative solutions each time. 

5. Self learning 

During the time I was tutored at Super 30, I discovered that I could finish at least 50 per cent of the syllabus without the help of a teacher. This was a huge advantage at the time. It made me self reliant and learn to solve problems on my own. Even today, I like to try and learn things on my own. Those early lessons pushed me to be independent and be a self learner. 

6. Think beyond 

At Super 30, we were taught to do things beyond the curriculum. While solving problems, we learned that we could do so much more. Like, we could create new questions for the same problem. These could be easy, tough and tricky questions. In order to test our skills, we would create these new questions and pass them on to each other. This was a different form of shared learning. This simple activity helped us think differently and be prepared for alternatives in our lives and careers. 

7. Find joy 

If you ask any student who has been a part of Super 30, he will tell you how Anand Sir turned studies into a fun activity. Just like how we learned to create questions out of solutions, we were taught to add new perspectives to each problem. We were taught to draw and paint, so we could analyse the problem in a fun way. It gave us so much joy to discover that learning need not be so complicated. There is so much competition in the world outside, but at Super 30, we were taught to find our individual strengths, focus on our merits and build confidence. These simple but experiential learnings have helped us look beyond our problems, develop ideas, lead teams and become successful. 

📜Conclusion:-

Never Forever, Give Up..!!!