Mumbai: The Maharashtra government seems to have taken a cue from the famed ‘Super 30’ classes of mathematician and academician Anand Kumar, who inspired actor Hrithik Roshan’s recent Hindi film released last month.
Anand Kumar is widely known for coaching 30 underprivileged students every year at his own centre, Super 30, in Bihar’s capital Patna.
The Devendra Fadnavis government is now preparing for its own ‘Super 50’ — a class of 50 of the state’s brightest tribal students who will be coached to appear for engineering and medical entrance tests — similar to the educational initiative run by Kumar.
The Maharashtra government has tied up with IITians Pace, an institution that prepares students for entrance examinations such as IIT-JEE, NEET, AIIMS and CAT among others, to coach the selected 50 students.
“The aim is to get these students into renowned engineering and medical institutions of the country. We held a selection exam for all tribal students in Maharashtra who finished their 10th standard in 2019,” said a state government official associated with the project.
“Along with preparation for various entrance examinations, IITians Pace will also prepare the students for 11th and 12th standard examinations at the CBSE board level,” added the official.
The scheme is open to all tribal students enrolled in the state government’s 491 ashramshalas (tribal schools), 25 Eklavya residential ashramshalas started under the Centre’s Eklavya Model Residential Schools scheme, and 11 English medium ashramshalas.
The state government issued a Government Resolution (GR) for the implementation of the project Friday.
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The Super 50 project
According to the GR, the scheme, ‘IITian Pace Education – Super 50, tribal students selected from engineering and medical aspirants for competitive exams and Olympiads’, came into being after the state government received an initial proposal to the effect from IITians Pace.
The state tribal development department screened the proposal and sought the approval of a chief secretary-led committee, after which it sent the scheme for approval and aid to the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs. A project appraisal committee of the ministry gave its nod to the project with a funding of Rs 5.12 crore on 12 February this year. Thereafter, the state tribal department held a meeting to finalise the format of the selection exam in June.
It held the first round of the selection exam on 28 June. Subsequently, the second round was held on 14 July, after which the state government finalised a list of 34 students for training in engineering entrance examinations and 16 for medical. Fifty per cent of the chosen students are girls.
The state official said, “For students interested in engineering, the exams were based on mathematics and logic tests of the 10th standard level, while those interested in medical had to solve papers based on biology, life sciences and chemistry.”
Students to get accommodation, study material, tablets
In the Hrithik Roshan-starrer Super 30, “inspired by the life of Anand Kumar and his students”, the Patna students were shown to study in decrepit classroom sheds, share books and notes and often run out of food supplies due to a fund crunch. With the tagline, “Ab Raja Ka Beta Raja Nahi Banega. Ab Raja Wahi Banega Jo Haqdaar Hoga (Only the deserving shall become king)”, the film kicked off a debate around the educational privilege of the powerful.
The Maharashtra government’s ‘Super 50’ will study in well equipped classrooms of the Vagad Pace Global School at Virar in the Palghar district. They will be given accommodation at the school’s hostel and will have access to its mess as part of the scheme. Moreover, the students will also get the required books, notes and a tablet each.
Overall, the project involves an expenditure of Rs 15.04 lakh on every engineering stream student and Rs 12.38 lakh on every medical stream student for two years, the state government official said.
Of this, with IITians Pace having agreed to waive 50 per cent of the coaching and assessment fees, the tribal development department will be required to spend Rs 11.25 lakh for every student preparing for engineering entrances and Rs 9.92 lakh for every student preparing for medical entrances, over two years.
The department has instructed the state’s tribal development commissioner to review the progress of the selected students every three months, and has appointed a six-member committee to address any glitches in the scheme’s implementation. The committee is required to meet once every three months at the same school where the tribal students are to be housed.
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