Coimbatore: In an attempt to increase the number of students belonging to scheduled castes (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST) entering into medical colleges, the adi dravidar and tribal welfare department in the district has trained about 38 Class XII students who were meritorious to take up NEET examination on May 6.
During the 21-day long training, residential training was given to the students, as most of the students were from Valparai, Pollachi and Thondamuthur region.
The department has joined hands with a private company, Hindustan Petroleum, and converted a building that remained close for more than five years at Dr Ambedkar Government College boys’ hostel, into a smart class.
First preference was given to SC/ST students from rural and remote regions of the district. State-level adi-dravidar welfare committee member S Selvakumar said a handful of students from urban areas were, also, being trained. Most of the students were from Valparai, Pollachi and Thondamuthur region.
Saying the students were selected based on their academic performance and determination to become a doctor, he said that of the trained students, over 20 students have secured above 90% in their Class X examinations.
“We received information that the government is planning to train the medical aspirants for NEET examination and immediately registered,” said K Dhivya, a student from a government-aided school in Valparai, who has secured above 470 marks in Class X examination. Expressing hopes that she had prepared enough to crack the examination, she said that if she was not selected for the training, she would have ended up attending NEET poorly prepared.
Agreeing with the student, academicians from the Government Arts and Science College who had volunteered to teach the students, said even though the time for preparation and training was less, the students were given in depth knowledge about the topics. Since most students are from Tamil medium and the study materials especially NCERT books were available only in English, the teachers said that they had, initially, faced difficulties in preparing study material for Tamil medium students.
This time, students will not be so blank just as they were during previous years, the teachers added.