CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu students are finding the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) difficult because schools here are skipping the Class XI syllabus and concentrating only on Class XII to ensure students get better marks in board exams, according to one of the experts in guiding students in competitive exams.
V M Sivakumar, managing director of Agni IAS Academy, who is guiding students in clearing NEET exams, said at the Education Expo (edex), organised by The New Indian Express, that Tamil students find it tough as nearly 30 to 40 percent of the questions in NEET is outside the syllabus of state board.
“We are now helping the students prepare for the 30 percent of the portion that is not being covered in their syllabus to make them perform better in the NEET exams,” he said.
This comes as the Tamil Nadu government sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention to get the assent of the President for two State bills to ensure continuation of the present system of admission to medical courses in the state. This comes as only 41 per cent students from the state are qualified to study medicine, the lowest among the southern states.
The Education Expo (edex) 2017, which was inaugurated by G V Selvam, vice-president of VIT University, Vellore, will be providing guidance for NEET aspirants. The event is jointly organised by The New Indian Express and VIT University. B S Abdur Rahman’s Crescent University is a key sponsor.
The event has attracted thousands of students from schools across the city, who visited the expo to gain insights into the courses offered by engineering colleges and other institutes.
A total of 55 stalls are being put up at the Chennai Trade Centre. Some include reputed institutions like VIT, Crescent University, Hindustan group of institutions, Bharat University and various other institutions.
Career counsellors at the venue say that students now want a course that gives them job guarantee and so, there is a lack of interest in research.
Sivakeerthi, co-founder of Safew Tech and who has 11 years experience in career guidance, feels that students now want a course that gives them job guarantee. “They are not keen about research,” he said.
Amrithan Narayanan, founder of Safew Technologies and visiting professor of BITS Pilani and advisor of many companies in Silicon Valley, dispels the myth that IT jobs are slowly dying. He said that the need of the hour for students is to get new skill sets.
“The skill sets are changing and there is a need for institutions to tie up with industry to keep abreast of the changes in technology.”