Super 30 has proven that with proper basic support, even students from the underprivileged background can qualify for the toughest competitive exams.

Only a native from a particular background can truly understand the underlying trials and tribulations of its community. So did one Anand Kumar. But then, rarely can someone transform a mere wish into an impactful reality, like he did.

Who is this Anand Kumar?

Well, Kumar, now 47, is a mathematician, later turned educationist who hails from Patna, Bihar. In 1994-95, despite securing admission to the University of Cambridge, he could not go due to family and financial reasons.

To supplant his income, he would sell papads with his mother in the evenings. Meanwhile, he had also rented a space to form his own institute, the Ramanujan School of Mathematics (RSM) and conducted tuition classes for mathematics. It took him only three years to flourish. Then, around early 2000 he encountered a young hopeful that would pull him to a newer and higher station in life.

Did it lead him to form the Super 30?

Yes. The young hopeful was bright but was also poor enough not to afford the high coaching fees that are necessary to prepare for rigorously demanding entrances like IIT-JEE. Also, during his coaching tenure, he realised that lack of proper guidance solely due to poverty made a failure out of some of these deserving students. Two years after that fateful encounter, Kumar floated the Super 30. It is a special coaching program made available to the meretricious underprivileged with the aim of getting through to IIT/JEE.

How are these 30 students selected?

Kumar's RSM holds a selection test every May which has been going on since 2002, to select 30 students for the year. He not only provides them with tuition but lodging and food as well. He does all this completely with his own earnings. In fact, he has refused gubernatorial aid, and national/International job offers to pursue this program. His mother, Jayanti Devi and brother, Pranav Kumar are also involved in the quotidian dealings.

How successful is it?

On an average 26-27 out of the 30 manage to crack the IIT JEE every year. The lowest so far is 24 successes way back in 2011.

Their golden period was from 2008 to 2010 when all the 30 students of each year achieved a hundred percent result, which also happened again in 2017. The overall percentage of the success rate is in the high 80s.