The School Education Department would take steps to provide online coaching free of cost to students taking up the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, said School Education Minister K.A. Sengottaiyan on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the National Testing Agency said NEET would be held on July 26. It was earlier slated to be held on May 3. The long preparation time has increased the competition and the challenges for students who relied on the government’s coaching programme.

Government school teachers said that the programme had picked up steam just before the practicals in December and January but with the lockdown due to COVID-19, it came to a standstill. Private coaching institutes have, however, been providing online sessions.

It was also announced that the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE)-Main for admission to engineering courses will begin on July 18 and continue from July 20 to 23. “Most established coaching centres have their own in-house software, which have helped them with online classes as well as conducting tests with parents monitoring students at home. Over the last one month, we've ensured that students have been engaged for at least four hours a day,” said Pawan Kumar, Deputy Head, FIITJEE Centres.

C. Aditya, a Class 12 student of Maharishi Vidya Mandir said that going forward, the next month will be dedicated to a revision of the syllabus ahead of the JEE. “Many of us were towards the end of the board exams when the lockdown was announced and we still need to take up the computer science paper. While the sudden developments initially were daunting, I realised that the only thing we could do in this situation was to keep preparing and work harder,” he said. Many like him, have used the last one month to continue preparing for the JEE and address topics which had seemed challenging to them before.

Motivated students

Teachers say only motivated students make the most of the online classes. Retired Biology professor R. Balasubramanian who runs classes through WhatsApp group puts out images and asks students to provide answers. He says students do not have the confidence to search for answers over the internet. In his class of 50, only four students would provide answers. “I give the word bank for filling up blanks. They have to fill the blanks with the appropriate answer. It is an open book test but they do not understand the textbook. Unless they understand the book they cannot answer,” he pointed out. A physics teacher from a government school in Madurai region said unlike last year the residential coaching did not happen. This could put them at a disadvantage, he said.

Prasad Manne, secretary of Kilpauk Medical College Alumni Association, has been training 22 government school students from across the State. MBBS students have been teaching a few differently abled students too. “For English medium students we have got NCERT books. Since the syllabus is vast, for Tamil medium students we have stuck to the textbook. It is more comprehensive than NCERT syllabus,” he said.

The delayed exam could favour the Class 12 students as they had more time to prepare, he said. “We hope at least one or two studens will get the seats. We have prepared the students but those who trained properly and have remained focused would benefit,” he added.