Sunday, June 03, 2007

Corrupting young minds: Part II


It consumes its first institutional victim: The Super 30 institution in Bihar and its founders -- mathematician Anand Kumar, and IPS officer and physicist Abhayanand -- say that they are thinking about terminating this experiment.

In an emotional outburst on Saturday evening ... Kumar and Abhayanand announced the closure of the scheme.

They were upset over competing coaching institutes hijacking three of their successful students and introducing them as their own to the chief minister, Nitish Kumar, who felicitated the students here today.

This is sad. I hope the founders will reconsider their view and revive the Super 30.

3 Comments:

  1. Anonymous said...

    I don't understand. From what I have read, it appears that the target of the Super 30 is different from those of the coaching institutes. The latter target mainly the children in the middle and upper middle classes while the former target the children of the poor who cannot afford the costly fees charged by the coaching institutes.

    Given this, why are Anand Kumar and Abhayanand so worked up about the fact that some of their successful students have got tempted by the money offered to them? Is this at all surprising? For that matter, it is nothing new either. I have heard stories of students who have successfully made it through the IIT entrance exam without help later on posing as a successful candidate of one or other coaching institute. Anyway, no matter what the coaching institutes do, they will not really attract a significant portion of the children of the poor...the Super 30 will have no shortage of children to work with.

    Two other points: (i) To found an institute with the sole or chief object of "cracking" [Indian English, I presume?] the IIT entrance exam seems misguided. By setting up an institute with such a narrow objective, they are effectively reducing their institute to the level of the coaching institutes. Is this necessary or desirable? (ii) Anand Kumar is described as an "unusually gifted mathematician." I have no quarrels with Anand Kumar but is there any evidence to support such a description? Does it detract from Anand Kumar's work with the children of the poor if he were not an "unusually gifted mathematician"? Somehow I get the feeling that this description is used as a sort of rhetorical device: We must all "admire" Mr. Kumar because not only is he gifted beyond the ordinary in his subject but he also does social service!

    Forgive this rant, but I find this elsewhere too and it has never ceased to bug me...I guess we all have our weaknesses.

    Suresh.

  2. Rahul Siddharthan said...

    Suresh - the numbers, if correct, are quite impressive (they would be impressive for any coaching institute, let alone one that works for the underprivileged). I agree with you that it is not surprising that students from such backgrounds, who are short of money, get tempted: and we know that rich kids do get tempted, so why hold them to a higher standard?

    Nevertheless, I can see why Anand Kumar feels hurt. It hurts to stay unrecognised, but it hurts more if the recognition that should be yours goes to someone else, and it hurts most if this comes from people close to you. I suspect the closing of the institute is just an emotional outburst. If he's truly committed, it won't happen, and the media coverage will help matters for him.

  3. Anonymous said...

    how can anyone make decisions just by reading news which were printed in local newspaper of bihar.
    cant anyone guess this that Abhayanand is ADGP (law and order,bihar ).he would be having enough power and influence in media section to make them write whatever he wants.
    super 30is doing really some gud things but it wants more return
    than they desrve. they selects students in the month of november, anyone who has prepared for IITJEE can tell you that the students who would be going to qualify
    the JEE has taken the shape by that time then what the hell these super 30 administration does with such students, just give them a place to live for 4 months so that they can claim their results.
    they are making fool of everyone .also they claim they select poor students what the hell poor students means to them --a student who is kota return whose parents had already spent more tahn 2.5 lacs on him/her during 2 yrs coaching in kota but student wasnt successful.
    or the students who can afford FIITJEE coaching.which coasts minimum of 20000 for 68hrs of.classroom contact.
    you can check out their results with FIITJEE or kota coaching institutes 50% students you will find have studied their before joining super 30 or were studying in FIITJEE patna while they were in super 30, how can such a student be poor..
    why super 30 didnt discuss on this.......
    they never said a word when FIITJEE claimed their best 2nds best rank student in JEE2007 as their classroom student in the front page addvertisemnet.
    what they want w+hy not they are clear in their approach..
    they get funded by a millionaire in USA and they say they dont accept donations why all this lies...their must be some hidden and evil thinking behind all this.....