A.P. students reap a rich harvest

By R. Ravikanth Reddy

HYDERABAD, JUNE 16. Andhra Pradesh is all set to acquire the sobriquet ``Centre of Knowledge'', what with promising youngsters of the State reaping a rich harvest at the premier entrance examinations in the country this year.

A total of 327 students from the State have qualified for admission into the five Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), perhaps, the highest from any State. With 20 students figuring in the first 100 of IIT-JEE and six in the first 15 of JIPMER, the State is surely riding on a crest of success. The numbers were never so good in the past.

Ms. Mythili Ranganath, a city student, bagged the third rank in the IIT-JEE while Ms. Sumana stood first in the JIPMER. Mythili has another record, being the first girl student to have bagged a top rank in IIT's history.

However, the case of Ms. Nidhi Sharma is the icing on the cake. A second year Intermediate student of Sri Chaitanya College in Hyderabad, she has been invited by the top five universities in the world, for her exceptional performance in the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), conducted by the College Board of America, wherein the top students from all over the world compete. She scored 99 per cent in SAT-1 and 100 per cent in SAT- 2 and is said to be the only girl student from India so far to have achieved this rare feat.

Though she was offered seats by Harvard, the Cornell University, and the California Institute of Technology, she chose the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), U.S. With an envious $ 35,000 yearly scholarship per year, she would be pursuing her B.S. course there.

Burgeoning coaching centres, a congenial atmosphere for education, ambitious parents and motivated students, apart from the booming Information Technology culture that has taken over the State, seem to be the major contributing factors.

Admits, Mr. C. Ramaiah, of the Ramaiah Coaching Institute Hyderabad, ``The IT boom in the State and ambitious middle-class parents are two factors. But this generation's aspirations to achieve the best is the prime factor.'' Interestingly, 102 of the 327 successful candidates in the State come from this retired teacher's institute.

An interesting aspect of this success is the growing domination of middle-class and economically poorer sections. A majority of them come from middle-class backgrounds while a section of them belong to rural areas where minimum of facilities exist. In fact, M. Kartik, a Scheduled Caste candidate from Hyderabad, took the top rank in the SC category in the JIPMER. ``Parents are more informed these days. They know what good education can bring to their children and they make them study seriously and consciously,'' explains, Mr. Ramaiah. ``A student aspires to become a doctor or an engineer or any other professional right from 5th or 6th standards. Such is the awareness level. But, this is only the beginning,'' he said, pointing out that in the next few years Hyderabad would emerge as a centre for academic excellence.

Several academics feel that coaching institutions have played an important role. ``They help in finetuning the students' skills, which are put to severe test in entrance examinations like IIT,'' admitted, Ms. Mythili, the 3rd ranker in the IIT-JEE. Perhaps, no other State has so many coaching institutes flourishing as in A.P.

But the road to success was not smooth for these candidates. When their peers enjoyed the MTV Grind, they were going through a different kind of grind. A gruelling schedule which starts from 4 in the morning and ends late in the night sans television, films, friends and parties is what has enabled them reach the Mount Everest of education in India.

With Andhra Pradesh riding on a crest of technology boom and with the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, leading the State, can the students be far behind ?

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