Five govt school students from one TN village make the cut for MBBS

Five govt school students from one TN village make the cut for MBBS

Sambath.Kumar@timesgroup.com

Trichy:23.11.2020 

Keeramangalam in Pudukottai district is in a festive mood as five students from the village will soon join government medical colleges, thanks to the 7.5% horizontal quota for government school students. This is the first time these many students — four girls and a boy — have managed to bag MBBS seats from the village.

Failing in their first attempt last year, all five decided to repeat the national eligibility-cum-entrance test (NEET) this year with the help of their teachers who didn’t stop with motivating them, but extended monetary help to three students to get private residential coaching in Chennai. Two others went to Trichy for coaching. All the five studied in Tamil medium which made it even more difficult for them to study NCERT syllabus in English. It took a toll on the NEET score of C Jeevika who had to satisfy with 241 marks. While she was mentally prepared to repeat the test, she said she was overjoyed as the government’s quota helped her bag the seat this year itself.

‘Want to pay back parents’ debt for my NEET classes’

M Dharanika, another student, said: “I want to pay back the debt that my parents owed by way of borrowing for my NEET coaching, soon after becoming doctor.” People have been visiting the students in the last few days and praising their efforts.

Saying that he didn’t expect such a reception from the village, R Hariharan of government boys higher secondary school, said,” Village heads have been asking all five of us to guide upcoming medical aspirants from the village saying we have now become role models.” Son of daily wagers, he is all set to join Pudukottai government medical college.

A Divya, who top scored among the five with 384 in NEET, said she owed her success to her teachers who were available to clear their doubt even during the lockdown. M Prasanna, another student who got a seat, said NEET was more of a mental game, and keeping calm during the exam and managing time were keys to success.

Saying that the students have made the government GHSS, Keeramangalam, proud, postgraduate teacher S Kodiarasan said that the girls were meritorious and they knew that they will somehow manage to clear NEET.