Tamil Nadu registers 12.4% dip in students applying for NEET

Tamil Nadu, which has been opposing conduct of NEET for admission into medical colleges since the beginning, has registered a 12.4 per cent dip in the number of students applying for the entrance exam this year when compared to the last academic year.

According to details released by the National Testing Agency (NTA), only 1,17,990 students from Tamil Nadu applied to appear for the exams, originally scheduled in May but will now be held on September 13 due to Covid-19 restrictions, as against last year’s number of 1,34,714.

The decrease is despite the number of exam centres in Tamil Nadu witnessing a spike from 188 to 238. The dip is calculated to be 12.4 per cent. With the NEET being conducted in the middle of a pandemic, experts warn, the pass percentage in the exams could also slide down due to a variety of factors like stress and economic reasons.

Educationists and experts told DH that the lack of confidence among students from Tamil Nadu, especially those coming from rural areas, on clearing NEET is the major reason for the dip in the number of people applying to get into medical colleges. They also said lack of coaching centres in rural areas and the Tamil Nadu government “loading the syllabus” at one go could have also contributed to the decline.

NEET is an emotive issue in Tamil Nadu and the state government has been opposed to its conduct since the beginning with the Assembly passing staff-specific laws seeking exemption from the exams. However, the laws are still pending with the court. Two young students – S Anitha and S Prathiba – ended their lives in 2017 and 2018 respectively after they failed in NEET despite scoring distinction in their plus-two exams.

Prince Gajendrababu, activist and general secretary of State Platform for Common School System (SPCSS –Tamil Nadu), said the decline in the number of applications vindicate the stand of activists and others in the state that NEET would take away the confidence of students who want to pursue medicine.

“We have been maintaining that NEET does not ensure a level-playing field as students from rural areas who do not have enough facilities to prepare for an entrance exam are forced to compete with those who get the best of education in cities. NEET actually takes really qualified students out of the race,” he told DH.

Dr G R Ravindranath, the General Secretary of the Doctors’ Association for Social Equality, said “mistrust” on the NEET examination is one of the reasons for the decline in the number of people applying for the exam. “Teachers should also encourage students to take up NEET preparation. Students in rural areas should be made aware of NEET and teachers should clarify doubts of the students if any,” he told DH.

Gajendrababu feels NEET has only increased the existing inequality between rural and urban students. “The state government has also loaded the syllabus during revision last year and rural students who have little facilities are not able to cope with it,” he added.

The statistics released by the government last year also does not project a happy situation. Only 2 per cent of the students who got admission into government and self-financing medical colleges in the state cleared the NEET exam without stepping into a coaching centre to prepare for the entrance test.

According to the data, only 48 students out of the 3,081 who got admissions into medical colleges have been able to clear the NEET exam without going to coaching classes. In the self-financing engineering colleges too, the figure is very less – out of the 1,650 who got admissions only 52 were able to clear the exam without any coaching class.