NEET: students remain on tenterhooks

R.Sujatha

Even as anticipation mounts on the release of NEET results, students and parents are apprehensive of what the results have in store for them. Though students have kept their options open, parents are hoping that the government would regulate the admission process to management quota seats.

Students who had undergone coaching are more confident but those in State board schools are hoping the government would take their aspirations also into account.

For Coimbatore-based R.T. Subhashini the anxiety has lowered slightly. She had applied to TNAU, which had already released its rank list and was preparing for counselling. “There was no let up on the stress since the run up to class 12 exams. And it had not eased yet,” she said.

While diabetologist S. Narayanaswamy, whose son had taken the test, wondered if management quota seats in medical colleges would be filled using the NEET score, the Centre director of a coaching institute A. Aravendhan feels the State government should clarify on the admission process to its quota of seats in medical colleges and regulation of admissions to management quota seats.

State Board students in Erode express helplessness as they took the test knowing there was no level-playing field. State government school teachers say the government must heed to their aspirations.

Hailing from a village near Radhapuram in Tirunelveli district S. Muthulakshmi, daughter of construction worker M. Selvaraj, completed class 12 in Tamil medium.

Mr. Selvaraj said: “The CBSE maintains that the question papers are of equal difficulty level. It is like saying the clothes are of different colours but of same quality. Let’s hope they are correct.” Muthulakshmi is hoping to score well in NEET. But Mr. Selvaraj said, “I can afford her education only if she is admitted to a government medical college.”

For B.A. Purnamita Saras, a student from Kendriya Vidyalaya No 1 Narimedu, who has several options, medicine is still the first choice. “I do not want two years of hard work for NEET to go waste. I appeared for many engineering and medical admissions. I did not crack JEE (Advanced). If NEET is delayed further, I may have to choose National Institute of Tecnology although I do not like it much,” she said. Teachers of CEOA Matriculation Higher Secondary School that has many NEET aspirants, hope the results are fair. Its co-chairman E. Samy said: “If only the issue over different sets of question papers had been sorted. Let us hope that the NEET results will be fair to all students.”

In Tiruchi a cross-section of students said the delay and uncertainty put them on tenterhooks.

A. Ashika Beham of who topped class 12 at Dr. Maduram Corporation Higher Secondary School in Tiruchi with 1101 marks, hoped that the admission process would begin soon. Her month-long coaching for NEET had been sponsored by actor Suriya’s Chennai-based Agaram Foundation. She took the test in Tamil. “Questions on Physics were tough, but I had done reasonably well,” she says.

Due to the confusion over NEET she for the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions. “My aim is to become a doctor. I hope the result will be known soon and I am able to decide quickly,” she said.

( With input from Karthik Madhavan in Coimbatore, R. Krishnamoorthy in Erode, Pon Vasanth Arunachalam in Madurai and S. Ganesan in Tiruchi )