The number of students who appeared for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) from government and government-aided schools in Tamil Nadu this year saw an almost 100% increase.
According to a report in The Hindu, 17,630 students from government and government-aided schools in the state appeared for NEET in 2019, as opposed to 9,000 students who took the test in 2018. Of the 17,630 students, 2,557 students qualified. This number accounts for around 4% of all students who qualified from Tamil Nadu. In 2018, 1,337 students had passed.
In the 2018-19 academic year, the state’s School Education Department conducted NEET coaching classes in government and aided schools throughout the academic year.
A month-long residential crash course for NEET preparation was also offered to 2,579 students across the state. These students were selected as a part of Thoduvanam project constituted by the state government, in which students are picked based on their SSLC marks for the coaching. The students are offered free laptops and books and are taught by specially trained teachers to crack NEET. Of these students, 642 students passed NEET in 2019.
Across India, the results for NEET was released on June 5 by the National Testing Agency (NTA). The overall pass percentage saw a slight increase this year with a qualifying percentage of 56.50%. In 2018, the figure was 56.27%.
Tamil Nadu performed better than last year in NEET with 48.57% passing the test. A total of 1,23,078 students from Tamil Nadu took the test this year, of which 59,785 passed.
Over 14 lakh students wrote NEET this year on May 5 across the country, except in areas affected by cyclone Fani where the exam was conducted on May 20. Another set of students whose train was delayed which caused them to miss the exam also attempted NEET on May 20.
While 12,04,968 students wrote the exam in English, 31,239 students took the test in Tamil.
Source: The News Minute