NEET: 5-student target for government schools

Owning to the poor response from the government school students in enrolling themselves for the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET), the State government has decided to ensure that a minimum of five students from each government school are registered for the test this year.

The online registration for NEET, conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) started from November 1 this year. However, during the first two weeks, due to lack of awareness, the enrolment of government school students was low.

Though the School Education Department set up more than 200 free NEET coaching centres for the students of government schools, most of the candidates were finding the online enrolment for attending NEET exams complicated, which was said to be reason for the poor response.

A senior official from Directorate of School Education pointed out that the poor turnout was also because many underprivileged students were not able to pay the fees of Rs 1,400. “In the view of prevailing situation, the government has instructed authorities concerned to register at least five government school students for the NEET,” the official said.

Conveying that the Supreme Court has granted interim relief to the students by extending the last date to November 30 by a week to apply for the test, the official said that the additional time would help in more candidates getting enrolled. 

“At present, there are around 3,000 government higher secondary schools and a little over 3,000 government-aided higher secondary schools in the State,” he said adding, “On an average, if five students from each government school enrolled for NEET, then total number of candidates will be around 30,000.” However, the official assured that the total number of registered students would exceed 35,000 and in some government-aided schools more than 10 students would be enrolled for NEET. He said arrangements were also made to post teachers to guide students in the registration process.

Last year, only 2.94% students, that is 1,337 candidates out of total 45,336, from government and government aided schools cleared the NEET.