Government’s residential coaching for NEET evokes mixed response in south districts

MADURAI

: The free 40-day residential coaching programme for NEET exam offered by the government for candidates, predominantly those from government and government-aided schools who wrote their Class XII state board examinations this year, has evoked a mixed response in the southern districts so far. A total of 14 centres have been assigned across Tamil Nadu to prepare students for the NEET exam scheduled to be held on May 5.


There are only three centres from Madurai to Kanyakumari – Kovilpatti in Tuticorin district, Royappanpatti in Theni district and Nagercoil in

Kanyakumari district

. The programme in Theni district had to be shifted from the originally assigned private polytechnic college near Bodinayakanur to the St Agnes Higher Secondary School and St Aloysius Higher School Secondary School in Royappanpatti due to issues with facilities provided at the old centre, which caused confusion and uncertainty among the candidates.

A source said that several complaints were even made to the Theni district administration after which the centre was changed. “The facilities provided at the originally assigned centre wasn’t good and hence the programme was shifted to two higher secondary schools from (April 2). While the boys are put-up at the St Agnes school, girls have been put up at the St Aloysius school,” a source from the Theni district education department said.

The officials said that around 280 students are undergoing training in the Theni centre, where only Tamil coaching is provided with participants from all southern districts.

In Kovilpatti, the programme is being held at the

National Engineering College

and around 182 students – 118 boys and 64 girls – are currently undergoing training according to college sources. “The allotted strength was 250, but 70 opted out because they decided to go to the centres which were nearer. But the response for the residential programme this year is better compared to the previous year,” the source said and added that there was a lot of uncertainty over whether NEET would be conducted last year and only because of that the programme didn’t pick-up much back then. In this centre, only NEET English is being taught.

The strength at Ponjesly College of Engineering at Nagercoil is around 300, according to sources from the district education department. But they said a “handful left the programme on grounds of sickness”. “Otherwise the classes for NEET Tamil is going well and students from Virudhunagar,

Ramanathapuram

, Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari districts are studying here,” the source said.

Officials from all the three centres said the students were predominantly chosen based on their performances and on theirs and their parents’ willingness.

A total of 108 students from Madurai were sent to other places as a centre wasn’t allotted to the district.


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