Sri Abhay Anand , IPS wrote to Indian Express on 19 Jun, 2008 :-
A foreign filmmaker who was following the progress of the students in Super 30, an institute that coaches underprivileged students for IIT, made a telling observation. How was it, he asked, that students at the institute help each other out as if they were collaborators instead of the competitors that they were.
In his question lay the answer to the institute’s success.
Making a group work towards a common goal is the most basic leadership process taught and practiced all over the world. What makes the process at Super 30 different is the fact that here the members of the group are not working towards a common cause. In fact, individually they are pitted against each other. If one of them qualifies in the IIT JEE, it cuts into the chances of others. Yet, anyone visiting the institute will observe how readily the students help each other.
I call this phenomenon ‘collaboration vs competition’. This is a managerial feat in which there is an attempt to create a sense of unison in a mutually competitive group. A normal coaching class that teaches a large number of students after charging a hefty package creates an array of competitors. Super 30, on the other hand, creates avid collaborators for free.
In his question lay the answer to the institute’s success.
Making a group work towards a common goal is the most basic leadership process taught and practiced all over the world. What makes the process at Super 30 different is the fact that here the members of the group are not working towards a common cause. In fact, individually they are pitted against each other. If one of them qualifies in the IIT JEE, it cuts into the chances of others. Yet, anyone visiting the institute will observe how readily the students help each other.
I call this phenomenon ‘collaboration vs competition’. This is a managerial feat in which there is an attempt to create a sense of unison in a mutually competitive group. A normal coaching class that teaches a large number of students after charging a hefty package creates an array of competitors. Super 30, on the other hand, creates avid collaborators for free.
One day one of the Super 30 students came to me in one of my informal sessions with them. He had a seemingly difficult electrostatic problem, taken from a popular competitive magazine in physics. Instead of solving the problem for him, I shot back a few questions. The student went into a ‘thought-shell’. When he emerged from the shell, glee was writ large on his face. He had seen the problem through. The style of teaching at Super 30 is not to solve the problems of the students but only to help them solve these themselves. My definition of a good teacher is one who doesn’t give answers but keeps asking the right questions, thereby helping the students to get to their own answers.
After the results were announced and the students were ecstatically exchanging sweets, a pressman asked one of the students as to what he thought was so unique about the teaching process of Super 30. The student did not waste a moment to say that the teachers make the students think for themselves.
Preparing for and appearing in the IIT JEE examination is, by all accounts, a very testing and painful process, both for the students as well as their parents and peer group. If this pain needs to be minimised, then the principle of ‘anaesthetisation’ has to be applied. At Super 30, we hold a very large number of tests under simulated conditions. The tests are so frequent that the students don’t get time to even groan under its pressure. Their mind is steeled. Their attitude and temperament gets conditioned to success. The thought of failure vanishes. The process is so designed that the student’s performance peaks on D-day.
A class test was being held. One of the problems in physics related to a carpet. A student quipped, “What is a carpet?” This may sound ridiculous to some. One must understand that most of the students at Super 30 come from a rural background. They do not understand words in English except those used regularly in science and mathematics. At Super 30 we help them to get over the inferiority feeling that often tends to assail them, and excel in the abilities they have. We have noticed that they manage to cover up their deficiencies during their stay in the IIT.
Giving back to society is what we try to inculcate in the students of Super 30. We are happy to note that a lot of them are trying to live up to this. It is slightly early to expect a wholesome return at this stage of their career. I just hope that they are able to live up to the expectations of the society that has given them whatever they have.
The writer, the additional director-general of military police in Bihar, taught physics at Super 30 till recently...
After the results were announced and the students were ecstatically exchanging sweets, a pressman asked one of the students as to what he thought was so unique about the teaching process of Super 30. The student did not waste a moment to say that the teachers make the students think for themselves.
Preparing for and appearing in the IIT JEE examination is, by all accounts, a very testing and painful process, both for the students as well as their parents and peer group. If this pain needs to be minimised, then the principle of ‘anaesthetisation’ has to be applied. At Super 30, we hold a very large number of tests under simulated conditions. The tests are so frequent that the students don’t get time to even groan under its pressure. Their mind is steeled. Their attitude and temperament gets conditioned to success. The thought of failure vanishes. The process is so designed that the student’s performance peaks on D-day.
A class test was being held. One of the problems in physics related to a carpet. A student quipped, “What is a carpet?” This may sound ridiculous to some. One must understand that most of the students at Super 30 come from a rural background. They do not understand words in English except those used regularly in science and mathematics. At Super 30 we help them to get over the inferiority feeling that often tends to assail them, and excel in the abilities they have. We have noticed that they manage to cover up their deficiencies during their stay in the IIT.
Giving back to society is what we try to inculcate in the students of Super 30. We are happy to note that a lot of them are trying to live up to this. It is slightly early to expect a wholesome return at this stage of their career. I just hope that they are able to live up to the expectations of the society that has given them whatever they have.
The writer, the additional director-general of military police in Bihar, taught physics at Super 30 till recently...
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