Bihar's Super-30 crack IIT entrance

Bihar's Super-30, a coaching programme run by a Mathematics teacher and an IPS officer for the underprivileged have always been famous for their success in the IIT entrance tests.

But this time, they have simply cracked it as all the thirty students have made it to IITs.

Smiles and sweets were being distributed at the free coaching programme for poor students from the backwaters of Bihar.

All 30 students have made it to the IITs by overcoming deprivation with hard work.

Jai Ram is among the 14 OBC students who rejected quotas and sailed through under the general category.

''My family has six members. My father is the sole bread earner, working as a labourer. How much can he do with his earnings?'' says Jai Ram.

All owe it to their gurus led by mathematics teacher Anand Kumar and IPS officer Abhayanand.

For the last six years, they have been coaching 30 bright students who cannot afford expensive tutorials.

''I was selected for Cambridge University for higher education in my student life. But due to lack of money, I did not go there. So I always feel the pain of poverty,'' says Anand Kumar.

The programme has been a success right from the very first year.

In 2003, 18 students cracked the test. And ever since, the number has gone up every year.

''It has been a gradually improving yatra and more and more a satisfying yatra,'' says Abhayanand.

This year's Super-30 say it feels great to be part of this novel concept.

''Being associated with such personalities who believe in philanthropy is great. With such great people, everyone, I think, is bound to succeed one way or the other. You become better as a person as such,'' says Ankur Ambastha, a Super-30 student.

Superlatives appear pale when you hear of the supposedly insurmountable hurdles these students have conquered. Super-30's cent-per cent success shows that merit knows no barrier.