Madurai
Out of the 226 government and government-aided school students of Madurai district, who attended the government-sponsored online crash course for National-Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) during the COVID-19 pandemic, a total of 62 students qualified in the examination.
With only 27.43% of the government and aided school students who attended the online crash course being qualified in the examination, teachers and experts stress on the shortcomings of the government-sponsored NEET coaching.
According to officials from the School Education department in the last academic year around 400 Class 12 students in the district, showed interest in taking the state-sponsored weekly NEET coaching classes that were held in 15 centres across the district.
Usually, the government arranges a residential NEET coaching for the students one month prior to the examination.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic robbed the government students of this opportunity. So, the school education department collaborated with a private company for an online NEET coaching crash course that commenced in mid-June.
S. Vennila Devi, the district coordinator of government-sponsored NEET coaching, said that the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult to track down all the students and hence only 226 students were enrolled for the online coaching course.
District Chief Educational Officer R. Swaminathan said that the lower performance of the students can be attributed to the restriction in meeting the teachers in person and clarifying their doubts during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Concurring with this viewpoint, N.D. Keren Luxia Mai, a student of Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Othakkadai who scored 320 in the NEET, said that the online classes were out of reach for many government school students.
"Many of my friends did not have smartphones at their homes and hence they couldn't attend the online classes. Many of the students also faced difficulties in understanding classes that were held in English," she said.
Mr. Swaminathan said that the government recharged data packs for around 45 government students who faced difficulty in attending the online classes.
The coaching provided during the online classes were more advanced when compared to the sessions that were held weekly before the pandemic, said Ms. Mai. "The students were able to write mock NEET tests only during the online sessions. It would be better if intense training is provided right from the beginning of the year," she said.
Ms. Vennila Devi said that out of the 15 NEET coaching centres in the district, only around 10 of them had smart classes. "It is essential that all centres have advanced infrastructural facilities to coach NEET aspirants," she said.
A source from the education department said that teachers were deputed on a rotation basis for teaching in the weekly coaching classes. "A team of dedicated teachers must be formed to train the students throughout the year," said Ms. Vennila Devi.
