Education activists blame the government for pushing the students to clear the controversial exam without a holistic approach.
The passed students get a 7.5 percent quota for admission to medical colleges in the state. (Creative Commons)
Even though the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) passing ratio of Tamil Nadu government school students increased to 35 percent this year from 24.27 percent in 2021 on NEET, educational activists in the state have termed the exam an injustice.
Their chief grouse is that the test gives an undue advantage to students of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) schools because its syllabus and question pattern are based on that board’s education pattern.
The Tamil Nadu School Education Department on Monday, 12 September, released the pass percentage of the students, noting that 17,972 students from government and government-aided schools registered for NEET this year, of whom 12,840 appeared, and 4,447 students cleared the exam.
In 2021, nearly 8,061 students wrote the examination. However, only 1,957 students cleared it.
The passed students get a 7.5 percent quota for admission to medical colleges in the state.
Education activists Prince Gajendra Babu told South First that the government had done injustice to the students and therefore could not expect a good result.
He called NEET a social injustice and said, “What are you expecting from government school students when you have done injustice to them by imposing a controversial exam?”
Babu also called the exam harassment against children.
The CBSE NCERT syllabus was key to cracking NEET. However, it becomes challenging for the state board students, which is why most students fail to clear the exam, said Babu, adding that this was harassment of the students.
Fear of not clearing the test, and actually not clearing it, has led several candidates to end their life.
Another educationist and education rights activist, Thamotharan, told South First that neither the state nor the Union government uses a holistic approach to education.
“Stop pushing students for marks and stop making them believe by giving coaching classes that only NEET or medicine is the future. Technology replaced medicines, and it is time for the government to start advising students to pursue other courses instead of accepting that it has achieved something in NEET with these government students,” he said.
He claimed that NEET had impacted Tamil Nadu, adding that “we can’t afford to lose any more lives and deceive students” through coaching centres.
Asked why only 35 percent of students cracked NEET this year even when the government coached them, he said, “There may be pressure among the students as the exam has become the only competition for them, and there is a lack of holistic approach.”
He also said that the pass percentage was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and the question papers.
“Students might have found the questions challenging to understand because of their syllabus, and the lack of frequent coaching classes was vital,” he added.
He said that most students were wasting their talents due to the exam.
According to the Tamil Nadu Government School Education Department, 172 candidates from Chennai appeared for the examination, of whom 104 passed in 2022.
However, in 2021, 130 passed the exam out of the 480 students who registered.
Several districts, including Virudhunagar, Salem, the Nilgiris, Perambalur, Madurai and Villupuram, recorded almost 100 percent pass percentage for government-school students.
As many as 400 students gained admission to medical colleges under the 7.5-percent reservation for government students in the state in 2021.
Last year, as many as 1,42,894 students registered for NEET in Tamil Nadu, and 1,32,167 students appeared for the exam.
Of the students who appeared for the exam, 67,787 students from Tamil Nadu qualified.
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