Time magazine group’s People magazine has come out with a new article praising the efforts of Anand Kumar, who is the founder of Super 30 which provides free coaching for children from poor families for entry into the Indian Institutes of Technology, and has termed him as a ‘People’s Hero.’ The magazine usually features celebrities and film stars. This is a rare occasion when a teacher has been profiled.
The People magazine feature details how Anand Kumar, working almost alone for over a decade, has helped 263 children from poor families to make it into the prestigious IITs.
"It feels great to find a place in People. It will inspire me work even harder. I am not a celebrity. I am just an ordinary man, but this is a great gesture from the magazine, to find me good enough for this honour. This is a recognition of the students, my teachers and family members, as without them it would not have been possible," Kumar said.
Kumar had hoped to study at Cambridge University in Britain, but when acute financial problems saw him giving up that dream, he set up Super 30 to help poor students, providing free residential coaching.
Anand and his innovative school have earlier featured in international magazines and on TV news channels.
Time magazine has earlier described Super 30 as the "best of Asia", while Newsweek had listed the school as one of the world's four innovative schools.
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Discovery Channel, which made an hour-long documentary on Anand Kumar and Super 30, described it as a "revolutionary experiment to bring about social change", while Yoichi Itoh, chief economist of STB Research Institute, Japan, which also made a film on "Super 30" for Japan's NHK channel, dubbed it a "secret weapon of India".
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Source-IANS