CHENNAI: AS the Centre has made NEET exam mandatory for all aspiring medical students, seat aspirants in the State have begun filling up coaching centres again, juggling Board exams, school and now NEET coaching.
Till recently these coaching centre only catered to CBSE syllabus students but as the State board students also had to pass the exam to be eligible for medical seats, the number of calls to these coaching centres had shot up.
“We haven’t started classes yet. We’re still enrolling students but there is almost a 50 per cent increase in number of students enquiring,” said Swami Nathan from a coaching centre in Anna Nagar.
In many instances, the coaching centres only take in a limited amount of students, so even if the number of students seeking coaching has increased, the strength of the classes remain the same.
“We only take a maximum of 45 students, so we’re not accepting any more. But this time, the volume of calls I turned down was much higher than last year,” said Raja Rajasekaran, director, Pioneer Academy in Iyyapanthangal.
Most coaching centres offer one-year courses and crash courses, and as the exams nears, there is high demand for the one-month, two-month crash courses. A few coaching centres hold an eligibility test before they admit students. “Not everyone can cope with the crash course, so we have an test to find out if the student will need a year-long course or crash course,” said a tutor from SK Coaching Centre.
The fees for the year-long course range between `1 lakh to `2 lakh and around `30,000 for crash courses. “The one-year course takes place seven days a week and we provide accommodation which is why it costs high,” said an administrative member from another coaching centre in Chennai.
There is no option for State syllabus students but to attend coaching. “There will definitely be an odd case where a student will be exceptional and do well without classes. But mostly it is essential for a student because the State syllabus is not enough to pass these exams,” insisted Rajasekaran of Pioneer Academy.
“The problem is with the State syllabus. It is easy to mug up the portions and pass the exam, but with NEET, you have to have in-depth subject knowledge and must understand it fully to answer the objective questions,” said Ravi C, a physics teacher who runs the GEM coaching centre which is one of the very few that caters to medical aspirants coming from lower classes who cannot afford these classes and therefore charge only `10,000-`15,000 a year.
In comparison to rural areas, the cities are still better when it comes to coaching, because in cities like Tiruchy, the students don’t even have the required study material for the exams, especially students from the Tamil medium. “With the test just months away, the rural students unfortunately have unequal opportunity for this year’s NEET,” said a headmaster of a Government higher secondary school in Tiruchy.
In Madurai, the situation is not very different. There are more than 10 private coaching centres for the NEET exam and more than five have introduced the new coaching for NEET in the past month in Madurai. If the students are from rural areas some of the coaching centres offer hostels accommodation and food.
While the Government schools haven’t taken any steps on coaching for the NEET exam, an education department official said they hadn’t received any proposal from Government schools to conduct coaching classes for NEET but a few matriculation schools were offering in-built coaching classes for NEET along with JEE from class 11.