At 8 am on a Sunday morning, our motto was- Be Ahead with Sustained Excellence. We had come to meet the star, young at 70, a major force behind the promising intellect capable citizens, and inspiration for thousands who crack IIT JEE, AIEEE and other competitive entrance exams, founder of BASE, Dr. H S Nagaraj.(Read Dr. H S Nagaraj Biography)
BASE- The Background
Basically I come from a middle class family. Like any other village then, it had no electricity, people lived in harmony, respected each other, politicization wasn’t there, caste was not playing big dividing role as it does today. Everybody had very little or no facility. Since my childhood days, I’ve recognized that everyone has capabilities but only some tend to create opportunities and tread a different path. People came up by chance not by design. I came to do a Pre-University course in Vijaya College in Bangalore. I joined B.Sc. as I was not aware of any other graduation program! A sudden interest in English literature was infused in me then. My humble background made me choose Physics over literature as I saw very less job opportunities in literature and I had to fulfil my family duties as well. Look at two things in life. Try to do what you love and see you have opportunity to make a living out of it- reasonable comfort.
BASE- The Beginning
I chose to become a Physics lecturer and started my career in Renukacharya College. My aim was to create an experience for my students that would make them fall in love with Physics. After a year, I moved to Vijaya College.
I was interested in research. I sincerely learnt everything I wanted to do. I completed my PhD. PU Board of Karnataka wanted electronics in curriculum, and I was very happy being the part of planning and implementation.
After 25 years of teaching, in 1991, I felt a lot more could be done. I was not happy with the facilities the students had. IIT JEE was a complete problem solving exam and hardly 2 or 3 from Karnataka made it there. Occasionally some students would come to me with a problem and I would help them solve it. I felt there was no constant organizational support. I quit my job. BASE was born to cater these needs. People didn’t believe that they could make it to the IITs. We started with 3 students, 5 teachers to support them and 1 of them made it to IIT-Bombay.
BASE- The Boon
We didn’t know the rules of the game. Problem solving was more of hard work for the teachers than for the students. It needed very good resources and equally dedicated tutors. We had a tough time understanding the dynamics. It took us time. Today 200 people make it to IIT from Karnataka, where most of them are our students. We have our strong alumni in NIT’s and other prestigious colleges.
What is even more satisfying is that we have groomed that section of students who have better learnability and efficient problem solving skills. Life is all about problem solving, finding solutions to the events, being capable of thinking wisely, seeing the logic, comparing and arriving at the best possible conclusion; be it research or day to day life. With memory driven exams you won’t achieve this. We have contributed to the society by providing that incredible learned capable citizens.
BASE- The Best
People say size and quality are inversely proportional. It’s true, your relationships become looser, communication and values can get diluted. Today we have our associate institutes spread over most places in Karnataka. It just requires better planning and better system to achieve the same quality. When you grow big, chances of truly capable individuals coming in are high. I am not really worried as we have become more proactive to serve our values and goals. We have placed certain processes, quality checks and necessary training to tutors.
Today we are able to reach the remotest corners of Karnataka with the help of technology. We can set up a network to reach every student. Internet is a boon. It has helped us maintain our quality. Geography constraints have been dispatched. We understood this paradigm shift and we upgraded our system accordingly. That is the secret of our success.
Ideas: Ideals: India
During college, I enjoyed my career. I felt I could do much better. The scenario was to either accept the mediocrity of the system and live with it or to push for something you always wanted to do. Life happens, little more or little less, hardly matters. If you are hard-working and ready to listen to your heart for the risk that you want to take, which makes you tough, your journey will be rewarding even if you fail. My family supported me completely. After the thought of quitting from a well settled job came, I submitted the resignation letter in 24 hrs. and embraced this challenging journey.
Our continuous innovation in 3 sectors will continue- Training, Teaching and Consultancy. Over 40 PhD holders are working with us, leading into a lot of content generation. We are into consultancy to take work from labs to the field. We have to establish system and processes, and scale the operations without losing quality. Every school has to improve.
In a country like India where population is too large, it’s tough to tackle challenges like unemployment of the current graduates. Unlearning plays an important role. Then you learn according to the needs of your job or life. Transition from memory driven learning to observing, analysing understanding the nature is slowly taking place. Yes, we are in a transition phase and soon learning will become enjoyable! In the two decades, I surely see lot of changes happening!