As there continues to be a ‘to be or not to be’ confusion over whether or not NEET will take place this year, Tamil Nadu continues to see a dip in the number of registrations for the exam. Since 2016, the state has seen a steady dip in numbers ever since NEET was made mandatory for medical aspirants.
This year, 1,17,990 registered to appear for the national medical test while last year, 1,34,714 had registered to appear for the exam. That means that 16,724 less students chose to apply this year. Since 2016, fewer students are choosing to take NEET, some choose to take a break and go to coaching classes to prepare but many don’t see success in taking the exam and are opting for other streams.
Dr GR Ravindranath, the General Secretary of the Doctors’ Association for Social Equality feels that this time, there might not have been enough awareness about NEET this year in the rural areas, “Now since there is uncertainty about whether it’ll happen or not maybe some candidates might have decided to pull out of the test,” he explains. He also feels that aspirants continue to feel like they will not have a chance at acing the exam, “Especially students from rural areas and government and corporations schools have given up on the medical dream because of the exam.”
The last date to register for the exam was January 6 but the National Testing Agency reopened the window and extended the date for application correction to July 20. Last year, only a single student from a government school managed to get a medical seat, the year prior to that it had been three students. This year, however, the State Government announced that they will reserve 7.5 percent of the seats for government school children.
