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Saiyed Anzar Abbas is a Co-founder at CLATapult, a CLAT tutorial with 6 branches across the country. He has worked in the capacity of the Administrator of CLATapult since its inception in 2012 and is based in Kolkata. From an institute with modest beginnings to one of the best known CLAT tutorials in the country, he has seen it all in these 9 years. A graduate of WBNUJS, premier Law School amongst the elite Law Universities under CLAT, Anzar explored every option including internships in Law Firms, Advocates’ Chambers before zeroing in on Entrepreneurship as his Career Path. In this interview, Anzar speaks of his brain-child and what his plans are to make it an even bigger name.
How would you describe your leadership style?
“Successful coordination and complementary working”
I strongly believe in working with like-minded folks who have expertise in areas that I am not particularly good at, thereby complementing each other in making the overall system efficient. I tend to focus more on my niche area that I feel confident working on, segregating it from several other areas which others are better at.
How do you strategize the key programs for the administration of your institute?
“Dynamic and flexible working principles”
As far as formulating programs and policies are concerned, we simply take into account the perspectives of various stake-holders involved, especially the parents of the CLAT aspirants who are best placed to come up with a wide array of ideas every now and then. We do not have any hard and fast policies that we abide by as a rule book, but tend to be as flexible as possible, so as to accommodate the more feasible ideas that come our way. We have always had a single point agenda vis-a-vis the marketing aspect of CLATapult, i.e good results leading eventually to good word of mouth. That was, is and will remain our approach towards increasing our outreach.
How does CLATapult ensure the best development of the students?
“Knowledgeable and motivating faculty to enhance learning”
In CLATapult, every tutor is a CLAT taker herself/himself, who has been there and faced that themselves. So the tutors act not only as teachers, but role-models and inspirations to these aspirants. The idea that the faculty teaching you belongs to the college that you dream of joining one day works as a big time motivator, that plays a very pivotal role in how these students perform eventually. We encourage them to participate more in day-to-day activities and take mock tests for a clear understanding.
What do you think should be CLATapult’s top priority over the next 10 years?
“Creating best representatives at national level”
We aspire to increase the ratio of the students making it to the National Law Universities with each passing year. Our biggest sense of achievement comes from those students who hone skills they otherwise lacked, going that extra mile to cover their shortcomings and, finally, surpassing others to fetch good ranks in CLAT. We look forward to formulating ideas where we could have healthier representation from students who have traditionally been under-represented in CLAT.
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How far have you been successful in implementing the vision of CLATapult?
“Global outreach and quality standards for large students”
In the past 7-8 years, since we founded CLATapult, our ideas have come a long way, especially in terms of how to take this forward. When we started, we were not extremely ambitious or had imagined placing 60-70 students into NLUs. However, in 2-3 years, the strength of students has tremendously increased. We had a terrific breakthrough in 2016, when one of our classroom students secured an AIR in the top 10. It boosted our enthusiasm further and pushed us to go through that extra mile, bring innovation, increase interaction among faculties, parents and students. In addition, we found ourselves placing 60-70 students in NLUs every year. We have evolved over a time, there has been a massive transformation vis-à-vis how the students are taught during the pandemic. This is kind of a rebirth for CLATapult, wherein we have shifted entirely online for the last 15 months. With our platforms running smoothly, we have been able to teach students PAN India. Earlier our outreach was restricted to Kolkata and students who travelled from the neighbouring states. Owing to our extended outreach, we are now present across nations, and have a few students from the Gulf countries as well. We are now able to impart quality education to students equally well.
What are some of the biggest challenges you see for higher education?
“Bringing relevant changes and appropriate mentorship”
The biggest pitfall in the current higher education is the one-size-fits-all-policy adopted, which leads to mushrooming of post-school tuition centres. However, the pandemic has thrown everything topsy-turvy. The whole face of the education system in India has changed drastically and hence the coaching centres really need to pull up their sleeves and prepare for the ‘new normal’ as well along with higher institutions. Also, lack of quality guidance to CLAT aspirants.
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