Founder of the Best IIT Coaching Centre tells new HRD Minister what it would take to have more IITians in the country

It’s great to see when a man who is serving this country stands up to make a point. One of them is Mathematician Anand Kumar, who has been providing coaching to marginalized students for IIT entrance through his successful coaching programme 'Super30'.

Having shaped several lives for over a decade, Kumar has gained an on-the-ground insight that most of the politicians taking a walk in the corridors of the Parliament are unaware of. It's not a surprise therefore that before Prakash Javadekar rolled out his plans for schools and colleges, he chose to invite Kumar to understand the loopholes in the Indian education system, and of course the Super30 founder’s recommendations were so real that it’s hard for anyone to ignore, let alone the new HRD minister.

The Good Samaritan asked the minister to ensure a "level playing field" for underprivileged students seeking admission to IITs. His reason - "They are late starters due to indifferent schooling and there is a need to bridge this rural-urban divide."

According to new admission process to IITs and NITs since 2013, a certain weightage is given to candidates' Class 12 exams. As there are several boards of education in the country, the board marks are "normalized" on percentile basis through a formula. Kumar suggested to do away with the weightage of plus-two marks in the JEE exams to the IITs.

"The students from poor families study in government schools and their standards, vis-a-vis public schools are well known. If such children can make their way to IITs despite all odds, given the condition they are studying in and with the current IIT admission procedure, scrapping the plus-two weightage will only encourage more capable students to apply in IITs,” he says.

He also sought some special training programmes for school teachers to prepare them for effective classroom engagement that could contribute to holistic growth of school children in villages.

Voicing concern for the falling education standards, Kumar further suggested the recruitment process for secondary and higher secondary schools to be standardized for able faculty to be hired.