Chennai: As many as three toppers among top 10 in engineering rank list have studied their intermediate (higher secondary) from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state boards to prepare for IIT-JEE and Neet.
S.Nithishkumar who was ranked 9th in the engineering rank list has been studying at Narayana Junior College in Hyderabad since 9th standard. After four years of coaching, he cracked IIT-JEE and got a seat in IIT Bombay.
His mother S.Usha said she is staying with her son at Hyderabad to help his preparation for JEE exam. “My husband G.Selvaraj works a school teacher. We wanted our only son to study in IIT. So, he started preparing him for IIT JEE as early as sixth standard,” she said. Nithishkumar scored 990 marks out of 1000 in his class 12 exams.Many students from his class got admissions in IIT Bombay and IIT Madras this year.
Another topper A.A. Manigandan from Ammayarkuppam in Thiruvallur district studied at Narayana group of schools in Tirupati. N.A. Nisha, another student from Kodivalasal in Tiruvallur also studied in Puthur in Andhra Pradesh. “The syllabus was in tune for the entrance exams. The teaching faculty also highly trained in these schools,” one of the parents said. R. Raj Chendur Abhishek, one of the toppers in MBBS rank list did his intermediate in Vijayawada.
When asked why he moved to Andhra Pradesh, he said, “There is more impetus given to state board exams and not on various entrance exams in most of the districts other than Chennai. Though I am from Dharmapuri, I have studied intermediate in Vijayawada from Andhra Pradesh state board to prepare for the Neet.”
Career consultant Jayaprakash A. Gandhi said, “Many parents are feeling if you have the advantage of nativity certificate then why not get better coaching for Neet and IIT JEE entrance exams. Every year the flow of students for Andhra and Karnataka is going up.” “Schools in these states have learnt to balance both the board exams and entrance exams from years of experience. The board exams also complement the entrance exams. The coaching for entrance exams in schools now only gathering pace in Tamil Nadu after Neet,” he said. “The reforms in school education have started now only and we may see the changes in the coming years,” he added.
However, the educationists said the over importance to entrance coaching would eventually kill the importance to school education and classroom coaching.A school headmaster said, “In places like AP, the schools are functioning like tutorial colleges. After Neet, such a degradation is catching up with schools in Tamil Nadu as well.”
