Not so NEET: Scores improve, but admissions don’t

Despite 48.57 per cent of the candidates clearing NEET this year from Tamil Nadu, which is about 59,785 students, only about 13,000-odd students have scored a ranking that may get them an admission into the prestigious government and private medical colleges for the MBBS course. From government schools, of the 2,583 students who have passed NEET, only 39 students have got a ranking that could get them an admission into the government medical colleges.

The students who don’t make the cut in Tamil Nadu will have to depend upon getting an admission into any of the private medical colleges in other states under outstation quota.

Tamil Nadu has 24 government medical colleges with 3,350 seats and 23 private colleges and universities with 3,350 seats. Of these, 15 per cent seats are reserved for the all India quota. Of the 3,350 private seats available, 55 per cent (1843 seats) are given to the government quota and 45 per cent (1507 seats) to the management quota (for fee structure, see graphic). There are 465 medical colleges with 66,771 seats across the country. Overall, 14,10,755 students wrote NEET at all India level seeking admissions into medical and dental colleges. Of these, 7,97,042 students cleared NEET.

In Tamil Nadu, the reason for very few students being eligible to gain admission into a government medical college is that their rankings are lower. To get a good ranking and a chance to gain admission into government medical colleges, students need to score in the range of 300 to 400 marks at least out of a maximum of 720. Experts say that those scoring over 450 have a sure shot at getting admissions.

Depending on the score and rank, students gain admission in Tamil Nadu government medical colleges. Of the total number of seats, 15 per cent of the seats are set aside for outstation students. Similarly, 15 per cent of seats in all states are set aside for outstation quota and students from Tamil Nadu also may apply for such seats.

Those wanting to gain an admission into the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and JIPMER have to write separate entrance exams and NEET rankings are not the criteria. Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, has now come under NEET from this year. Earlier, there was a separate entrance exam for AFMC, Pune. From last year, CMC, Vellore, also has come under NEET.

NEET was proposed in 2012 but was implemented in 2013. The first NEET exam was conducted on May 5, 2013 for admission into MBBS and BDS courses. On July 18, 2013, however, the Supreme Court cancelled NEET by giving a verdict in favour of 115 petitions. The SC said that the Medical Council of India (MCI) cannot interfere with the admission process.

On May 4, 2014 CBSE appealed against the All India Pre Medical Test (AIPET) which had replaced the NEET UG exam before the Supreme Court. Thus, NEET was restored by the SC with comments of the five-member bench. When NEET was initially announced in 2012, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu opposed it, while other states accepted its introduction.

The opposing states argued that variation in syllabus would be big issue for their students in facing NEET. Experts say NEET is a much better system which benefits students since they have to take only one entrance exam and hence spend less on cost, effort and time in preparing for the various entrance exams. They had to fill several application forms, pay for each one separately and run from pillar to post to get admission. Now they can apply to as many colleges online by just paying Rs 1,000 one-time. The current system does away with the difficulty of having to pay in one college and then wait for a preferred college. If they later got admission there, then they had to struggle to get back their certificates and refunds. Many a time only partial refunds were given.

Under NEET, once they get their rankings, they know where to go for their admission and it has also built a fair and transparent system. NEET has also made it mandatory that colleges in the respective states give admissions only to the domicile students. In the pre-NEET era, colleges would take hefty donations, said to be in the ranges of Rs 50 lakh to Rs one crore and give admissions to whosoever brings the money, thus denying locals of admissions.

In 2016, NEET was conducted in two languages English and Hindi. Later, more languages including Tamil were added to make it easier for local students. A student from unreserved category can attempt nine times while those from other categories have 14 attempts, making it liberal enough for students to try for medical courses.

Among those who cleared the NEET include 315 foreign nationals, 1,209 NRIs and 441 OCI (Overseas Citizens of India).

Delhi had the highest score of 74.92 per cent, Haryana stood next by scoring 73.41 per cent, Chandigarh 73.24 per cent, while Nagaland scored the lowest at 34.2 per cent.

The highest score of 701 was attained by a student from Rajasthan, while two students scored 700. When two students secure the same score, the higher ranking goes to the student who scored better in biology and then who scored better in Chemistry.

In 2018, Keerthana from Tamil Nadu scored 676 out of 720 and secured 12th All India rank. But this year, while the highest score from Tamil Nadu was 685 by Sruthi, her ranking was 57. From last academic year, the Department of School Education (DSE) changed the syllabus to help students prepare better for NEET and it has helped to a certain extent. But, students studying in government schools still find it difficult to understand the new methods and will require further training to do well.

After introduction of NEET, students from Tamil Nadu have become the real beneficiaries. While not able to afford a coaching centre made poor students insecure, free coaching has given a boost to students studying in government schools. State Board students were handicapped as a superior syllabus in CBSE schools prepares the latter better to face entrance exams. Now, the State Board exam question patterns have been changed and made competitive with CBSE, thus helping students prepare better for competitive exams.

After noting that students in the state were having a tough time cracking NEET since its inception in 2013, the state government stepped in and arranged to provide free coaching in 413 centers and also gave the students free study materials and worksheets. This has reflected in this year’s performance with the average marks going up and the pass mark also going up to 134 from last year’s 107 in the state.

An official of the government coaching centre under project Thoduvanam (touching the skies) in Nagercoil district said they are bringing students who cracked NEET earlier to train and motivate new aspirants and tell them how they went about preparing for their NEET.

Explaining this further, he said we have taught students a short cut to be exam smart by thoroughly preparing for theory in biology and try to score full marks and in physics and chemistry, if they could answer a minimum of 15 of the 45 questions in each of the two subjects, they could score enough to get a good ranking. “This could get them 480 marks”.

For the same shortcut, private coaching institutes are charging anywhere from Rs 32,000 (crash course) to Rs 3,30,000 (two years integrated course) as fees.

Tamil Nadu is the only state where free coaching is being provided for government schools.

This facility will propel students to return to government schools, because it is a game changer.