Experts blame pandemic for TN’s poor NEET show

CHENNAI:  Tamil Nadu’s overall performance in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) has come down as only 51.2% students qualified, down from from 54.4% in 2021 and 57.4% in 2020. The State’s performance is lower than national average of 56.3%.

This year, 1,42,894 candidates registered for the exam while 1,32,167 appeared and 67,787 qualified. The number of students appearing has been steadily increasing every year as 1,08,318 appeared and 58,922 passed in 2021 while 99,610 appeared in 2020. 

Academicians said that the fall in students qualifying is worrying and attributed it to learning loss due to Covid-19 pandemic and tough question paper set this year. “Although 8,865 more students from the state qualified compared to last year, the qualifying rate has declined. Most of the government school students couldn’t attend classes when they were in Class 11 due to the pandemic. They would have been the most affected,” said Jayaprakash Gandhi, a career consultant.

He added that the cut-off for various categories will also be lesser compared to last year as students who scored above 630 marks have come down considerably, according to the data released by the National Testing Agency. “The questions were tricky. Students found it difficult to understand as their foundation was not strong as they didn’t attend the classes properly,” said a senior officer from a leading coaching institute.

Students who qualified from the state was the lowest in 2018 (39.56%) and 2019 (48.57%). However, after two years, it has come down. Meanwhile, sources in the school education department said that government school students continue to struggle to get through the examination due to lack of appropriate facilities for NEET preparation.

According to sources, among government school students who attempted the examination for the first time, Veenasri from Chennai scored 471 marks followed by B Brinda who got 467 marks. Brinda had scored centum in the four major subjects - maths, biology, physics and chemistry - in Class 12 examinations. 

“We are collecting data of students who have scored well in NEET. However, only three students who wrote NEET for the first time have scored above 450,” said a school education department official.