Education holds power to change generations, not just lives

Jan 30: Education has the power to not only change lives but generations and make the world a better place, Indian mathematician and founder of Super 30, Anand Kumar has said.

"The need is to pull the underprivileged sections of the society out of poverty and that can happen only through education, which is a lasting solution. Stopgap solutions will not work," he said while addressing students here in the Saudi Arabian city.

Kumar whose pioneering Super 30 initiative has helped students from the most underprivileged sections of the society maintained that "education has the power to not only change lives but generations and make the world a better place".

"The growing inequalities in the world need to be addressed and that can happen only by equipping youth across the world with the power to transform. It is the responsibility of the society to ensure equal opportunities to all, irrespective of caste, creed or colour," he said.

Giving the examples of many Super 30 students' children of private security guards, daily wage earners, roadside vendors to marginal farmers, the 42-year-old mathematician said they are all examples of what right and timely opportunities can do.

"Many of them passed out from IITs and are today working in different parts of the globe. Their lives have changed and so have their families," Kumar said.

Experiencing acute poverty in his student days, Kumar made it a mission to help children from underprivileged sections and help them join the mainstream.

Super 30 was launched in 2002, also referred to as 'silent revolution'. 308 students from the initiative have so far made it to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) out of 360 who were enrolled in the institution.

PTI