THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It bears a similar title as that of Anand Kumar’s Super 30, an institute that has been featured globally for working with 30 students from the underprivileged section and chiselling them to be IIT material. Yet Super 100 is more classified than that. The priority is STEM education and the pool of talent has girls from coastal and tribal belts.
Among the many initiatives that the programme, a practical application of the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ scheme, has taken up is the effort to set up a library of 300-500 books on the district collectorate premises.
However, the collection drive has not picked up pace despite being launched last month, and only about 30 books have reached the facility.
“After Onam, we plan to approach forums such as Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad and publishers to improve our collection,” says Tilsa S Lucas, the project coordinator.
The books being sought after are mostly concept-based, like science made easy or ones that explain maths in detail. “The collector’s Facebook post helped in getting some contributions,” says Anson P D Alexander, part of the project implementing group.
The Super 100 recently replenished its vacancy of 43 students that was created after the passing out of Plus Two students and transfer of students from other classes. They were selected after a screening process in July.
“This is a one-of-a-kind programme that was launched only in the district as part of the national scheme. We aim to pick students from a community that may not get a chance to pursue STEM education. We also tie up with coaching institutes to provide entrance exam classes to students. Recently, nine of the 16 students who wrote NEET cleared it. Others are preparing for another attempt to better their scores,” says Anson.
Apart from this, the Super 100, selected from 35 schools in the coastal and tribal belts, are given regular training in concept understanding, academic study, bridging gaps in the study period, etc. They are also taken on visits to institutes such as VSSC, IISER, natural history museums, etc. for exposure to science study.
They are given regular offline training at the collectorate on Sundays and online training in community centres nearby. Volunteers of the project, partially funded by the CSR of Cochin Shipyard Limited, include college and school teachers and experts.
To contribute books to the library, contact 8921407754, 9645947934, 8907608041.