PUDUCHERRY: Puducherry Lt Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan on Monday advised the union territory government to reserve a certain percentage of seats in medical colleges for government school students who clear the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).
She was at the review meeting of the Puducherry Education Department held at Raj Nivas and emphasised the need to strengthen government NEET coaching centres. Currently, 30 students from government coaching centres have qualified for NEET.
Political parties and social organisations during the Congress-led V Narayanasamy government had demanded the same. Although the UT government had sent a proposal for a 10% reservation, the then Lt Governor Kiran Bedi had forwarded it to the Ministry of Home Affairs, but it was not granted.
Tamilisai also said that teachers should be provided with innovative training to meet the challenges of the CBSE curriculum. The quality of education should be improved and vacant posts of teachers must be filled, she added, noting that digital and smart classrooms should also be set up. Addressing the low pass percentage of government school students in public examinations, the Lt Governor called for rectification of the issue.
Tamilisai also emphasised the identification of dropouts and encouraged them to return to school. Additionally, she proposed 'No Bag Day' once a month, during which extracurricular activities should be prioritised, and suggested celebrating 'Students Day' by felicitating children from government schools who top public examinations.
The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary Rajeev Verma, Secretary of Education P Jawahar, Secretary to the Lt Governor Abhijit Vijay Choudhary, Joint Chief Executive Officer of Smart City Planning Rudra Goud, Director of School Education Priyadarshini, Joint Director Sivagami and other officials.