Patna: `Super 30`, which provides free IIT
entrance exam coaching to underprivileged students, today
received praise from US President Barack Obama`s special
envoy Rashad Hussain who termed it as the "best" institute in
the country.
"Super 30 is the best institute in India and an
example of change, a dream which US president Barack Obama
harbours in the field of education, irrespective of caste and
creed," Hussain, Obama`s special envoy to the Organisation of
the Islamic Conference, said here.
"In India wherever I have gone I find it the best
thing I have come across."
After meeting students at the institute, the envoy,
accompanied by officials of the US Consulate in Kolkata, said
he was overwhelmed by the academic atmosphere on the campus.
The institute, which was recently featured by the Time
magazine as "the best school in Asia", has the distinction of
all its 30 students making it to the prestigious IITs for the
third consecutive year this time.
"This is a very good beginning. People irrespective of
caste and creed are living like members of a community. And
back in the US, I will discuss the experience of `Super 30`
and `Samman` and explore if anything could be done there,"
Hussain, an Indian-American envoy whose father hailed from
Bihar, said.
Hussain yesterday visited the `Samman Foundation`,
which provides health care services to rickshaw pullers, their
family members and unorganised migrant labourers.
He assured the students at the institute, founded by
mathematician Anand Kumar, that he would convey their
invitation to Obama to visit them during his forthcoming India
visit.
The Obama administration is committed in bringing
social harmony just as it is maintained under the roof of
`Super 30`, he said.
Anand Kumar, who himself could not pursue higher
studies abroad due to poverty, gives full scholarships,
including travel and stay, to a select batch of 30 poor
students since 2002.
Altogether 212 of the 240 `Super 30` students have
cleared one of the country`s toughest exams during the last
eight years. The Discovery Channel had also made an hour-long
documentary on the institute.
PTI
