After fighting tooth and nail against the introduction of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for undergraduate medical and dental courses for years, Tamil Nadu has seen a significant improvement in the performance of its students in this year examination. The State, which had one of the lowest qualifying percentages of 39.56% last year, has jumped to 48.57% this year.
Students can access their results at ntaneet.nic.in .
This was still lower than the national qualifying percentage of 56.5%. Overall, almost eight lakh students have qualified for counselling for entry into MBBS and BDS programmes, said the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducted the examination and released the results on Wednesday. Among the States, the highest qualifying percentage was in Delhi, where almost 80 percent of students qualified.
The Tamil Nadu government had objected to the introduction of NEET from 2012 and fought an extended but unsuccessful legal battle to keep the all India exam out of the state. Concerns about State autonomy and the ability of rural students to match NEET standards fuelled its opposition.
Public anger
Public anger erupted after the examination was first conducted in the State in 2017. It saw S. Anitha, daughter of a Scheduled Caste daily wage labourer from Ariyalur district, taking her own life. She had scored 1,176 out of 1,200 marks in her State board examinations, but the Supreme Court denied her plea for those marks to be considered for medical admission. Unable to afford coaching classes, she only managed 86 out of 720 marks in the NEET, dashing her dreams of becoming a doctor.
Over last year, the State government conducted free special coaching classes to help the State board students, especially from the rural areas, to meet the standards of NEET. Out of 1.2 lakh students from the State who attempted the exam this year, almost 60,000 have qualified.
Puducherry also saw a similar improvement in its qualifying rates this year.
The only large State that saw a major drop in performance was Rajasthan. Its qualifying percentage dropped from 74.3% to 69.6%. However, the all-India topper Nalin Khandelwal hails from the Sikar district of the State and studied at a coaching centre in Jaipur.
The topper’s story
“My parents are doctors. So I had the desire to enter this profession from a very young age. I enjoy the subjects and also want to be part of a social justice profession,” said Khandelwal, who scored 701 out of a possible 720 marks. He is still awaiting the results of the AIIMS entrance examination before deciding on his next step. “I read the NCERT syllabus multiple times as well as material from Allen Career Institute. I’ve been studying at least eight hours a day,” he said.
While 4.45 lakh women qualified in comparison to 3.51 lakh men, it was the male students who dominated the top rankings. File
While 4.45 lakh girls qualified in comparison to 3.51 lakh boys, it was the latter who dominated the top rankings. Only seven girls appeared in the first 50 spots of the All India ranking list, and Madhuri Reddy G of Telangana was the only woman in the top 10n, snagging the seventh rank.
The highest number of qualifying candidates -- 3.75 lakh -- came from the Other Backward Classes category, while 2.8 lakh qualified from the unreserved category. Almost one lakh students qualified from the Scheduled Caste category, while more than 35,000 Scheduled Tribes students also qualified.
Four candidates were identified using unfair practices in the examination and the result of these candidates has been cancelled. They have been debarred from appearing in the Medical Entrance Examination conducted by NTA as per rule.
