Nagpur: The number of applicants for Marathi language NEET paper dropped 80%, compared to last year. This year just over 6,000 Marathi applicants registered as opposed to almost 32,000 last year for NEET, which is conducted in multiple regional languages.
Marathi NEET applicants formed just 0.39% of the total registrations this year. A sharp drop indeed from the 2.06% share from last year.
The biggest rise was in Tamil applicants as their figures rose by an astounding 1,600%. From just 1,017 applicants last year to 17,101 now, is the sharpest upwards trajectory recorded ever for NEET. Bengali language applicants also rose by a whopping 800%. From just over 4,700 last year, Bengali language applicants shot up to over 36,500 this year.
Odia language applicants saw the biggest drop vis-a-vis last year. From over 31,000 in 2019, Odia applicants dropped to a mere 850 this year.
Gujarati applicants were the only ones who held fort despite their large numbers. Fall in Gujarati applicants was negligible and they managed to continue to stay above the 59,000 mark. With hardly a few hundred less students compared to last year, Gujarati applicants comprised 3.7% of the total registrations.
Hindi continued to be the biggest in terms of numbers in non-English category. In fact, Hindi language applicants rose by almost 13% this year to over 2 lakhs.
Why these numbers have risen or fallen drastically is at best speculative according to academics. Zafar Khan, who manages a residential coaching institute, said it’s surprising that students still register for regional options. “These options are available merely to allay political pressure because ultimately the entire studies will be in English only. Also one needs to look at their success figures too. I am sure that many would have registered just for the sake of registering,” said Khan.
Sameer Phale, a well known medical entrance exam teacher, said, “Many years ago I had one student who opted for a regional language. That time it was not under the NEET banner. But I also do not understand why one would opt for a regional language route when finally you will study in English.”
LANGUAGE — 2019 — 2020
English — 12,04,968 — 12,63,273
Hindi — 1,79,857 — 2,04,399
Assamese — 1,796 — 5,328
Bengali — 4,750 — 36,593
Gujarati — 59,395 — 59,055
Kannada — 2,305 — 1,005
Marathi — 31,239 — 6,258
Odia — 31,490 — 822
Tamil — 1,017 — 17,101
Telugu — 700 — 1,624
Urdu — 1,858 — 1,977
Eng & Hin — 13,84,825 — 14,67,672
Regional lang — 1,34,550 — 1,29,763