Only 8 TN govt, aided school students may get med seats

DID WELL IN NEET

Only 8 TN govt, aided school students may get med seats

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:22.10.2020

Going by the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) cut-off in 2019-20, only eight students from government and government-aided schools in Tamil Nadu are in with a chance for MBBS admissions this year. This is despite 89 students scoring above 300 marks. In 2019-20, 32 students from government and government-aided schools got above 300 and two students got MBBS seats.

This year, four students from government-aided schools who trained in the state-sponsored coaching programme scored above 500 marks. Two BC category students, with 497 and 495 marks, and two differently-abled candidates are likely to get MBB seats. The remaining 82 students, including the topper among government school students with 423 marks, do not seem to have a chance.

In 2019, cut-off in government medical colleges went up by nearly 100 marks in most categories due to the surge in top scorers in NEET after the first phase of counselling. Last year, the cut-off for OC category was 520 marks and for BC it was 470 marks. The cut-off for BCM and MBC was

458 marks and SC category it was 360 marks. For SCA it was 301 and ST 267 marks.

“The state government has revamped the syllabus. But, the teachers were not trained and they may need 3-4 years. We have to give government school students a separate quota for at least three or four years,” said Dr Prasad Mane, secretary, Kilpauk Medical College Alumni Association.

“Giving a separate quota to govt school students also will strengthen the primary healthcare centres in rural areas,” he added.

“In 2017, a student with 470 or 480 marks got all India rank 2000. In 2020, students with the same mark get all India rank 20,000. That's why fewer students are getting MBBS seats despite the better performance,” Mane said.

Dr G R Ravindranath, general secretary of Doctors’ Association for Social Equality, said the government needs to increase the standard of its NEET coaching. “Despite the pandemic and only online coaching, students performed better than last year. Of 6,692 students 1615 have qualified. If the state government implements the 7.5% quota this year, around 370 students from government schools would get MBBS seats. All political parties should meet and urge the governor to implement this 7.5% reservation," he said.