NEET 2019 results: Tamil Nadu performance improves, but EWS students stumble

Students, teachers, and political parties in the state have raised concerns over this trend, especially after three students from weaker economic backgrounds committed suicide over the last three days after failing to get a high score.

Students from Tamil Nadu have done well in this year’s NEET results, with the state also improving its overall performance by 10 per cent. However, only one of the 19,680 students from government and government-aided schools who appeared for the NEET has scored more than 400 of the available 720 marks in the entrance exam, underlining the fact that students from the economically weaker sections in the state are still struggling to crack the test.

Students, teachers, and political parties in the state have raised concerns over this trend, especially after three students from weaker economic backgrounds committed suicide over the last three days after failing to get a high score.

Prince Gajendrababu, a leading educationist and the owner of a Chennai-based school, said, “NEET has nothing to do with what we teach students in the school but it is all about tricks and practice. A section of students who can afford to attend coaching classes can do well in NEET. It is all about training students for several hours to teach them tricks about how to attend or avoid a question. It is not only about scoring but also about prevent negative marks. Students with more practice, who spent more time coaching classes will clear the exam.”

“The earlier system, that used to give admissions (to medical colleges) based on Plus Two marks has now been changed to an exam which needs specific skills and tricks… What is now being challenged is also a level playing strategy that we had been following in medical education. Our earlier policy was something that considered the complex social conditions, inequality and economic background of students,” said a senior professor in Stanley Medical College in Chennai.

Take the case of A Gomathi. The daughter of a daily wage worker in Chennai, she scored 93 per cent in the Tamil Nadu State Board, and scored 308 in this year’s NEET. This was her second crack at the entrance exam — she scored just 90 on her previous attempt.

“I did well in what I was given to study in school. Now I have better marks (in NEET) but I am still waiting for the cut-off. I do not know what will happen during the counselling,” she told The Sunday Express.

With about 4,100 seats available for MBBS counselling in the state this year, 3,250 seats are in government medical colleges and 1,590 seats in self-financing colleges, which is shared between 860 seats under the government quota and 730 under the management quota.

However, multiple experts familiar to the counselling process and trends in results said it may be difficult for Gomathi to get placed this year.

“Last year, (the cut-off) was 264 and this year, it may go much above 300 due to increased qualifying percentage of students who have scored over 500 marks. Students from poor family backgrounds may not be able to get an admission in deemed universities too as they cannot afford to study there,” said an official.

As far as the post graduate NEET exams are concerned, doctors from Tamil Nadu have performed well — of the 79,633 qualified PG NEET students from the entrance exam earlier this year, 11,121 were from the state.

The maximum number of candidates who appeared for PG NEET too were from Tamil Nadu, followed by Karnataka and Maharashtra.

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