Anand Kumar is an Indian teacher who is best known for the ‘Super 30’ program. This initiative coaches brilliant students from low-income families in breaking the Joint Entrance Examination(JEE) for the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT). The mathematician mentors students who come from poor families free of cost.
He studied at Patna High School in Patna Bihar in his childhood. He submitted papers on number theory during his graduation, which were published in the Mathematical Spectrum. He secured admission to the University of Cambridge but could not attend because of his father’s death and his financial condition.
Coming from a Middle family, his dreams of higher studies in mathematics were shattered after his father died suddenly. He later determined to make sure that young talents do not die out for lack of money and started the ‘Ramanujam School of Mathematics’ to provide cheap coaching and sponsor higher education to needy children. He intends to be an example to others who might create such initiatives in the future.
Following his father’s death, Anand Kumar’s mother had started a small shop at home where she made ‘papad’, which he delivered in the evening for extra income.
Determined to teach mathematics, he converted the math club he had established in 1992 into a coaching institution to train needy students for various competitive examinations for a nominal fee. He rented a room for a month and started with just two students, but reached 36 students by the end of the year, and 500 within three years.
He offered yearly coaching just at ₹1000 while the market price was ₹6000, but some of the students from underprivileged backgrounds could not even afford that. In 2000, when one such student told him that he sought to coach for IIT-JEE but could not afford the annual fees, he decided to sponsor him.
How did Anand Kumar start ‘Super 30’
He called his brother and chalked out a plan to begin the ‘Super 30’ program in 2002, which selected 30 students from extremely poor backgrounds families for free of cost coaching for IIT. He also provides free food and stays for them for a year, apart from study materials.
During May and June every year, he holds a competitive test to select 30 students from economically backward sections. For the next year, he prepares them for the highly competitive IIT-JEE examination.
Since 2003, he has tutored 450 students under the program, among whom an incredible 391 students passed the IIT-JEE to enter the prestigious institute. Between 2008 and 2012, he achieved three consecutive 30/30 results.
After the success of Super 30 and its growing popularity, he received offers from the private sector – both national and international companies – as well as the government for financial help, but he has refused it. He wanted to sustain Super 30 through his efforts.
Anand Kumar has already succeeded in his attempt to revolutionize the educational system with limited means. He is determined to provide top-grade education to needy students without financial help from outside.
Anand Kumar’s Super 30 initiative has helped over 500 students from underprivileged societies successfully chase their IIT dream in the last 18 years.
Dainik Jagran made amends and presented its ‘Editor’s Choice Award’ to Super 30 founder Anand Kumar in 2021, recognizing his work in the field of education.
