CHENNAI: Of the 12,997 government school students who wrote the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) this year, 3,982 of them have passed, according to the data collated by the school education department.
While their pass percentage has improved to 30.6% from 27% last year, the number of students writing and passing the exam witnessed a slight decline this year. In 2021-22, 14,979 government school students wrote the examination and 4,118 of them cleared it.
The government school students also fall short of the overall pass percentage of the students from the state in NEET, which is at 54.45%, by a big margin. At least 1,44,516 students had appeared for NEET 2023 and 78,693 students had cleared the test. The overall pass percentage of the state is 54.45%. From the available data, the pass percentage of private school students is around 56%.
Salem has the highest number of government school students clearing the examination with 519 out of 2,007 who appeared from the district. The lowest number of students attempting the examination was from the Mayiladuthurai district in which 25 appeared and 11 were cleared.
In terms of percentage, Tenkasi (2.6%) was the lowest while Virudhunagar had the highest (81.35%). "The awareness among the government school students regarding all entrance examinations has increased. The department is also providing special training to students with good academic performance," said a government school teacher in charge of a model school.
Veena Sri, a student of Virugambakkam Jaigopal Garodia Government Girls School, scored 637 in NEET in her second attempt this year. "My father works for daily wages at a pharmaceutical company. Because my cut-off was high, I got an engineering seat at Anna University. Since I studied in a government-aided school till class 8, I was not eligible for the 7.5% quota. I convinced my parents that I could get into a government medical college next year and I am happy I was able to score better this year. I also took help from a coaching centre in Iyyappanthangal," said Veena Sri.
Meanwhile, education activists said that the government should continue to oppose NEET as it increases the commercialisation of education. "From the newspaper ads, it is evident that only students who took private coaching have scored high marks," said Prince Gajendra Babu, general secretary of State Platform for Common School System.