Hard work helps Theni boy climb atop NEET ladder

Son of a shepherd and a seamstress scores 664 in NEET in his second attempt.
Jeevith Kumar with his parents at A Vadipatti in Theni district
Jeevith Kumar with his parents at A Vadipatti in Theni district

THENI: Eighteen-year-old N Jeevith Kumar, the son of a shepherd and a seamstress from A Vadipatti near Periyakulam, scored 664 marks out of 720 in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) in his second attempt. His is one of the highest ranks secured by government-school candidates from across the country. His All-India Rank is 1,823.

Jeevith enrolled in the Government Model Higher Secondary School in Silvarpatti at Class IX and passed out of the school last year. School headmaster A Mohan told Express that Jeevith secured district second rank in Class X and XII Board Examinations by scoring 493 marks out of 500, and 548 marks out of 600 respectively. 

In his first attempt last year, he could score only 193. “He said he had answered all the questions from the State Board syllabus right. If given guidance in preparing for questions from the NCERT syllabus, he confidently said, he would crack the exam in the second attempt. It was then that we pooled money to pay for his coaching fees,” shared Mohan.

Considering Jeevith’s poor economic background, the headmaster and 25 teachers of the school contributed about Rs 60,000.

Jeevith then joined a private-coaching centre in Rasipuram in Namakkal district for a 10-month residential coaching programme. Jeevith said he wanted to drive home the point that government-school students too can crack the exam. However, he opined that government coaching is not up to the mark and appealed to government to train government-school teachers to coach the aspirants more effectively.

“With a two-year-long coaching by well-trained government teachers, at least one student from every government school would pass the test,” he said. He also sought Tamil translations of NCERT books and question banks, which are now available only in English and Hindi. His father K Narayanamoorthy is a shepherd and his mother N Parameswari is a seamstress and a MGNREGA worker.

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