Against the backdrop of the bill passed by the Legislative Assembly to exempt Tamil Nadu from the NEET UG (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test - Undergraduate) exam still not receiving assent from the President of India, there seems to have been a major drop in the number of students applying for government coaching camps in Madurai district.
While 760 students applied for the coaching last year, the number has dipped to 449 this year, said PG Chemistry teacher and Madurai Revenue District Coaching Coordinator S Vennila Devi.
Special residential coaching camps for NEET
The school education department conducts special residential coaching camps for the students of government and government-aided schools who wish to appear for the NEET exam. Online coaching for the common entrance test commenced in the district on Wednesday, April 12. "Considering this scorching summer, making aspirants travel long distances for the classes was not prudent. So, the online classes will benefit everyone," said K Karthika, Chief Educational Officer, Madurai,
"For a whole year before the commencement of online classes, in-person coaching classes were held at 12 places in the district on a weekly basis. This year, we had also allowed Class XI students to attend the coaching," she added.
Elaborating on the online class schedule, Vennila Devi said an 80-mark test is conducted for the students in the morning and a teacher will clear their doubts regarding questions in the test during the evenings. Since the National Testing Agency (NTA) has slated the NEET exam for May 7 this year, a model test will be held for the students by the coaching centres from May 3-5.
What did NEET UG registration numbers look like last year?
"Last year, 760 students applied for coaching in the district and over 200 of them cleared the test. However, only 449 aspirants have applied this year. The waning interest may be due to fear of the NEET exam or due to more students opting for engineering courses.
Since the introduction of residential coaching in 2018, we have been taking efforts to enrol more students. Apart from teaching subjects, we train them on how to face the exam without fear and even how to tackle failure if at all they don't clear the exam on the first attempt.
We also began to honour HMs of schools, if their students clear the exam in the first attempt. Last year, HMs from four schools in the district received cash prices in this regard," she added.
Applicants for NEET exam this year:
Girls under 7.5 % govt school quota: 247
Boys under 7.5 % govt school quota: 29
Girls not under 7.5% quota: 58
Boys not under 7.5% quota: 7
Boys from govt-aided schools: 68
Girls from govt-aided schools: 40
TOTAL - 449
