Med seats come at a cost for govt students in Tamil Nadu

Despite acute poverty, several students had to spend lakhs of rupees for private NEET coaching.

CHENNAI: There seems to be no escape from the stranglehold of coaching institutes as all top 10 candidates on the MBBS rank list of students selected under 7.5% quota for government students are NEET repeaters.

Despite acute poverty, several students had to spend lakhs of rupees for private NEET coaching. While some students were able to get help from philanthropists and charitable organisations, others like
S Pachiyappan, who secured second rank and got an MBBS seat in Madras Medical College, had to take loans from moneylenders for their NEET coaching. Pachaippan’s father is a daily-wage labourer engaged in road construction in Bengaluru.

The Directorate of Medical Education conducted counselling for government students, special category candidates such as wards of sports players and ex-servicemen, and persons with disability at the Kalaignar Centenary Super Speciality Hospital in King Institute on Thursday.

‘Govt’s online classes rushed through syllabus’

Pachiyapp an of Dharmapuri district completed his Class 12 in 2022 and had got 168 marks in NEET-UG which was not enough for him to get a medical seat. So, with the help of his maternal uncle M Krishnan, he joined a private coaching centre. This year he scored 565 marks in NEET.

“His father is a labourer and his mother too is not in a position to help him. So, his maternal grandparents, who are farmers, and I borrowed money from a moneylender for interest and gave him NEET coaching. We spent Rs 1.25 lakh. We are happy he secured a seat this year,” Krishnan said.

For M Annapoorani of Ariyalur, who scored 533 and got seventh rank, it was the son of former president of her school’s Parents-Teachers Association who supported her coaching from abroad. Annapoorani got MBBS seat in Madras Medical College. She had to spend Rs 2 lakh for private NEET coaching.

C Simbu, who secured 65th rank with a score of 444 and a seat in Government Omandurar Medical College, said his parents had to take loan for his Rs 1.20 lakh coaching expense. Several students said the government online classes were not helpful. “They rushed through the syllabus in a month and we couldn’t follow it,” a student said. According to selection committee data, of the 2,993 government school students who were eligible under the 7.5% quota, 2,363 (79%) were repeaters and only 630 had cleared NEET in their first attempt.

Cop secures MBBS seat
Chennai: A police constable in the Tamil Nadu Special Police wing in Avadi is one among the NEET repeaters who secured an MBBS seat on Thursday. Speaking to the press, Sivaraj, from Dharmapuri district said, he secured 268 marks in NEET last year, so he couldn’t get a medical seat. Again he wrote NEET this year and got 400 marks. He completed his class XII in 2016 and did B.Sc in Chemistry. In 2020 he joined the police department and working as a constable for the last three years.

Cop gets MBBS seat
A constable, NEET repeater, got MBBS seat with a score of 400 on Thursday. Sivaraj of Dharmapuri, who joined police service in 2020, had scored 268 in NEET last year