IIT-JEE teacher with 100% success rate

It was his own struggle against poverty that helped Anand Kumar to get where he is today – the iconic maths coach, with a 100% success rate in helping his students crack the tough IIT Joint Entrance Exams. His Patna-based Super 30 educational programme, which scouts out 30 students from economically challenged families and coaches them for the IIT-JEE – now has a 30 out of 30 hit rate for three years in a row.

“We look for very bright students and then do rigorous background checks to find out if they are really from poor families. A large part of the students who we coach come from very modest background. We’ve had children of poor farmers and autorickshaw drivers. For us caste, religion, gender etc are no bar in selecting our students. Most of them drop out for a year after their Class 12 to prepare for the exam,” says Kumar, who was forced to give up an opportunity to study at Cambridge University after graduating from Patna University because of his father’s untimely death and his family’s poverty. In the end, he firmly believes, it’s grit and hard work that gets his students through to India’s premier technology schools.

“They don’t have the advantage of English medium education and unlimited resources, but they work really hard – often for 14 hours a day. And that’s the secret behind their success in the IIT-JEE,” he says.

His deep interest in numbers translated into setting up maths camps for high school children around Patna in 1997, even though the family was struggling to keep its head above water through a small business venture in making and selling papads.

“That was the beginning, the maths camps were very successful and attracted thousands of children. So, along with a few friends, I decided to start the Ramanujan School of Mathematics from which the Super 30 programme has evolved,” says Kumar. The programme now provides free board and lodging for the students besides the tuition. And despite the humble origin, Kumar has not accepted financial support from any government or private agencies or individuals so far.

“We have received offers of support from various high profile people including Mahindra & Mahindra chief Anand Mahindra and US-based investor Mohnish Pabrai. However, we do not accept any help and sustain our venture through our evening classes for intermediate level students who are preparing for various engineering tests,” he says.

In the beginning, the coaching mafia in Patna had thrown the gauntlet at Super 30. “They did not want us to provide free coaching because that was coming in the way of their fleecing the students and charging huge amounts as tuition fees,” Kumar explains.
But all that is a thing of the past and now his dream is to set up a full-fledged school for students who have an aptitude for maths from Class 6. “I would like to coach bright students from poor families in maths. I feel that many of them have the potential to do well, not just in Indian institutions but to also take on tough challenges such as the international Maths Olympiad,” says Kumar who has worked out a multimedia module to coach his students and increase their confidence levels.

“In helping our students solve the problems, we have created two characters. One is Rikki, a well-heeled, urban lad while the other is Bholu a simple boy from a poor family. It’s always Bholu who is smarter and manages to find many ingenious ways of solving the problems,” he adds.

Kumar is also planning to expand the Super 30 programme outside Patna to different cities in Bihar and other states too. He also plans to increase the number of students to 60. He has recently made a presentation to the ministry of human resources development on the need to change the IIT-JEE examination system.

“One of my suggestions is that students – specially those from villages – should be given three chances to do the exam, instead of two that they now have,” he says. And recently, an IIT alumni organisation has invited Anand Kumar to share his magical formula with them.