Understanding Bihar’s Super 30 Phenomenon | Hacker News Reader

Understanding Bihar’s Super 30 Phenomenon

newslaundry.com

71 pointsakbarnama42 comments

Unpopular opinion: this is not the way engineering should be taught, to ace a stupid test. I understand these are economically underprivileged kids and I wish them best, but I would really love it if someone followed up on where they end up after graduation.

I’m hoping that as the economy develops further, the need to go to such extremes will diminish and folks can pursue their true calling.

Taxpayer money shouldn't be spent in funding such competition.

While education systems in west are focused towards collaboration, Indian education system makes them compete against each other like wild dogs.

When will India understand, it's not about competition but collaboration.

We can argue this system creates very few winners and a lot of people feel like losers in this system.

If they made them feel better, they can increase their net education output which would be far better than showcasing any specific rank or endorsing any specific brand like IIT.

In my opinion that's what also happens with entry to top class institutions like Stanford, MIT, Caltech etc.

Competition for better schooling is everywhere weather it is for the Grammar Schools of the UK or Gymnasium School of Germany. I have seen parents preparing their kids for Grammar School right after they leave Kindergarden age.

> While education systems in west are focused towards collaboration, Indian education system makes them compete against each other like wild dogs.

P.S.: the "competition" is just for entrance to these premier Indian colleges. I guess, the same would hold true if you want to enter prestigious U.S. colleges like Stanford, Harvard, Yale, or any other Ivy League colleges. Of course, in India, the number of students applying is vastly different, which is what makes it super competitive.

>While education systems in west are focused towards collaboration

Citation needed. Capitalism is basically "free for all competition" in a nutshell.

that's a cynical view. Capitalism is the freedom to buy and sell from whoever you choose. If what you choose to sell is something so unique, you'll escape competition.

Oh no, if you want the cynical view of capitalism it's that the already rich create a rigged system in which they are able to exert disproportionate influence on the government and regulators that affect their ability to create and preserve their own wealth. They then use this influence to push weaker competitors out of the marketplace, eventually creating a single monopoly on an industry. Allowed to go to its conclusion, you replace political empires with financial rule.

That's just the short version. "free for all" is actually the optimistic view in my opinion. At least in a "free for all" metaphor you have the assumption of equal standing and "the strongest" winning.

> someone followed up on where they end up after graduation

There you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSwi3RcVBzw

It is mostly big banks, big and medium IT companies.

The amazing engineering work at ISRO is mostly engineers from regional non-IITian colleges.

https://swarajyamag.com/culture/reviewing-the-real-super-30-... seems to have some comments from past students

Agreed, that test eats up years of childhood.

Considering that nearly 100K students give the exam, what criteria will work best to select 5K students for available seats?

No criteria. I think the problem is with the low number of seats available. A similar quality of education can be made available at a much larger scale if the country is so motivated. It's understandable that not all branches of engineering at other universities can acquire the kind of funding that IITs have. Apart from some specialized lab equipment, there is no technical reason all universities can't offer a comparable quality of education all over India. There are only bureaucratic reasons.

Nearly 1 million, students try to crack IIT exam.

No.of seats available are 12-13k. That's nearly 1.3%.

I for one hope that education moves online completely. In india, the education sector cannot meet the demand and as a result it's filled with meaningless tests.

> this is not the way engineering should be taught

Nit: "super 30" is not about teaching engineering. That begins after the said exam.

Anecdotal, but many of them end up in the Bay Area (my dad is one of them).

Recently, Indian government have released new educational draft.

If everything goes as planned, it will be implemented by 2030.

IITians are demi gods in India. This status puts a lot of pressure on student at a young age to crack this entrance. So much so, that there are regular cases of students committing suicide due to the pressure from society and family.

For many who don't know, there are coaching classes where preparation for the exam is begun as early as the 5th or 6th grade.

It took me 2 years to get over the failure of not getting into IIT. It's a really messed up situation. I really hope parents understand the situation and stop traumatizing their kids.

For a lot of kids its the only way out of the hood. Especially these kids in super 30. If they don't make it its back to poverty. If they get in they have the ability change their entire families socioeconomic status including parents and siblings. Its like pro athletes or rappers trying to get out of the hood. Its hard to do.

To a lot of kids it is a life or death situation.

That is really sad if true.

It's ok to say that cracking the entrance exam is going to give them a great platform on which they can build their future.

But telling a 16 year old to clear it believing it's a matter of life and death . That has to be one of the biggest failure of the parents/society/educational system.

I really hope that Internet education reaches a stage where no one has to face such a situation. Being one of those failed students, I would like to tell any one who is trying to clear the exam and reading this. Try your best, it's ok if you don't clear. If you persist and keep working hard with whatever you have, you will do wonders.(Ignore people who say otherwise).

Entrance exam culture is biggest bullshit of the century India facing. On one hand college dropout are starting startups and disciplined intelligence thrown in to mindless clerical works, ultimately proving first idea works better than the second.

Very similarly, the tech industry requires you to leetcode non stop. I wish it stops too.

Indian education system is completely messed up. It destroys any trace of passion, curiosity, or thinking different. What the world needs more of isn't competent bureaucrats (which IIT produces a lot of), it is people who are creative, passionate, and courageous. I hope to god we never import the Asian exam mentality to the us.

Unfortunately we already are. See SAT prep schools and test prep industry in general in the US and abroad for an example.

Was not that bad when I was growing up. Sure there was pressure to become engineer/doctor but IIT was not be-all end-all. There was always DCE, REC. Have things changed that much in last 20 years?

IIT gives you a lot of name recognition and opens up many doors automatically. As someone who didn’t get in, I missed out on foreign internships and research opportunities by not attending them. The universities you mention are still great but don’t have the same recognition I guess. Every foreign grad students first question after learning Im from India “ oh did you go to... IIT?”

> but IIT was not be-all end-all. There was always DCE, REC.

Its a way to use as filters at later stage of life. Job or marriage (see iitiimshaadi.com). Top 2% or top 10%.

Man I am glad I missed all this. And not even sure how this would have worked. Back in my days at IITB we had about 350 boys and 7 girls.

Prettier/fairer the girl, the higher the IIT rank of the guy. Isn't that how it's been working since forever?

On a personal note the brand IIT has helped me in making me what I am (whatever that be). Even though I did not make it to IIT, the aspiration to get into IIT made me push myself to my limits. The preparation to get in helped me in getting top score in my state engineering exam allowing me to gain admission to the “best” engineering college of my state. That led to easy job placements, getting selected for lead role ( my manager actually said that he selected me just by the Engineering school I graduated from.. He was happy so I guess I didn’t do too bad on real life performance parameters) and getting accepted for research based masters by prof who knew about the college.

So coming back to the point, the IITs inspire you to dream and be ambitious and bold. I think for that matter alone, the premium value of the brand needs to be preserved. It has helped people from small towns like mine, where people don't know the difference between IIT and ITI, to aim high.

IITians.. paid for by the Indian tax payer. But of no use to India, but US.

> IITians..

Why target only IITians, even non-IITians migrate in large numbers. Also, they are not 100% to blame for this, if you foster a good environment nobody will leave. Everyone is to be blamed.

Move adaptation - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_30_(film)

Related to this, check out Dakshana (https://dakshana.org/ ). They're a very well run charity with great metrics, and their Annual Reports are interesting reading.

Trailer link: https://youtu.be/QpvEWVVnICE

It has English subtitles.

> I know you have watched Super 30, the movie, so have I

Wow, a lead that just begs the reader to stop.

It is written for an Indian audience, presumably. Would you expect all articles to be written generically or to your cultural tastes?

No, but the article could use a two sentence explanation of what is "Super 30"

My experience exactly. “Hmm.... no I have not. Cmd-W.”

I stopped after that. Is Super 30 supposed to be like the Avengers or something?

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