Inclusive education key to social justice: 'Super 30' founder

Mumbai, February 9: Mathematician Anand Kumar, who has founded the innovative coaching programme 'Super 30', today said inclusive education is the only way forward to ensure social justice and asked the youth to devote themselves to community service in the right earnest.

It is important for the youth of the nation to take to social service like a mission to bring about real change in society, he said.

"Inclusive education is the only way forward to ensure social justice in society and for that youth have to come forward," Kumar said addressing students and academicians at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) here.

He shared experiences about his successful initiative, under which 30 meritorious children from economically backward sections of society are selected and academically groomed to join the prestigious IITs.

Experiencing acute poverty in his student days, which prevented him from going to Cambridge University for higher education, Kumar made it a mission to help wards of people from underprivileged sections at Super 30 and help them realise their dreams.

"What I have achieved as an individual gives me the confidence that if the youth take to rural areas in the right earnest and do social service, they would make a vital difference in society," he said.

Highlighting the need to take theoretical knowledge to the villages for practical experimentation, he said the nation looks up to them to deliver. Launched in 2002, 308 students from Super 30 have so far made it to IITs out of 360 who were enrolled in the Patna- based institution.

At Super 30, food and accommodation are provided free apart from round-the-clock mentoring. Kumar's entire family is involved with the programme running under the banner of 'Ramanujan School of Mathematics'.

PTI