Hyderabad: Usually for any entrance test, it is the lecturers who teach and students are expected to study hard. But an interesting situation is being seen in corporate and private colleges where long-term NEET coaching classes have commenced with not only students, but also Botany, Zoology, Physics and Chemistry lecturers burning the midnight oil. This is due to the new pattern of the Neet exam which the lecturers’ fraternity in the state are not so familiar with.
All these years they were accustomed to Eamcet format. With NEET coming into effect full time from 2017, students are enrolling in big numbers for long-term batches and the onus now lies on lecturers to make them adapt to the new pattern of the national exam.
Hence, lecturers are going through books and reference material while checking the NEET exam and model papers to see how questions were set in the national entrance test.
Mr V. Narender Reddy, a senior lecturer and owner of a private junior colleges in three districts, said that lecturers were putting in 25 per cent extra effort besides their duties compared to last year.
“Now a lecturer with 30 years teaching experience in Chemistry and one with five years are on the same ground. Both have to do extensive legwork to answer and clarify doubts raised by students as regards the new entrance test. Incidentally the state syllabus was revised three years back that is almost on lines of NCERT syllabus. So lecturers’ focus is mostly on the new exam pattern,” he said.
A leading corporate college has decided to hold special workshops for Bi.PC lecturers teaching in its institutions across the districts for preparation of new material in tune with the Neet pattern.
Eamcet book material is now outdated. Colleges have to print new material for the long-term batches, a lecturer said. College managements, meanwhile, have hiked the fees for Neet long-term batches by up to 25 per cent.
“Lecturers are also demanding higher salaries because of the increased work load. Also, new book material has to be arranged while regular tests on the new pattern have to be conducted every month to ensure students are well prepared for the final exam. Colleges that charged Rs 80,000 previously have hiked the fees to Rs 1 lakh, and those that were charging Rs 1.2 lakh have hiked it to '1.5 lakh,” said a faculty from a college.
