Chennai: Even as the poor performance of Tamil Nadu students in National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Neet) 2016 has raised concern among parents and students, experts are pointing fingers towards the lack of exposure to entrance tests and outdated syllabus in state board as main reasons for the debacle.
In an exclusive report on Monday, Deccan Chronicle reported that only 41.9 per cent of the students from the state qualified to study medicine through Neet 2016, the lowest among the southern states.
Candidates from neighbouring states have qualified in big numbers with Kerala leading the country with 79.77 per cent followed by Telangana by 77.8 per cent and Andhra Pradesh by 72.93 per cent. From Karnataka, 71.85 per cent students got minimum marks to study medical courses.
“In the last 10 years, the students don’t have any entrance exam to get admission into professional courses like engineering or medicine. So, the mindset of the students is to do well in their board exam and then get admission to top colleges in the state,” said Anand Nagarajan, Academic Head for the school division of TIME, Chennai.
He said they lack the edge when it comes to competitive exams. “In competitive exams, the understanding of the concept is being tested, unlike the board exams which are more of the memory based test. That is the single reason why Tamil Nadu students fared poorly in Neet compared to other states.”
“We cannot expect immediate results as they have been tuned to one way of learning and they need to undergo a paradigm shift in terms of how they learn. It will take four or five years to see the change,” he said. Former Vice-Chancellor M. Ananthakrishnan said the poor show of the students was expected one.
He also expressed surprise that 41 per cent of the students from the state have qualified through Neet. “Students do not read subjects and they only prepare for exams based on the blueprint. So, they lack fundamental knowledge in physics, chemistry, biology,” he said.
“Most of the schools are not teaching the class 11 subjects to the students. Instead, they study class 12 subjects for two years,” he said.He also demanded to abolish blueprint method in state board examination for class 10 and class 12
Meanwhile, senior educationist S.S. Rajagopal denounced Neet results saying they were driven by coaching centres. “In the states where there are more coaching centres, the students have done better. The students who get through Neet without going to coaching centre is almost nil,” he said. He further said it is the only denial of education to the poorer section.
While opposing Neet, career consultant and analyst Jayaprakash Gandhi said the central government should bring uniform syllabus across the country before implementing common medical entrance test.
“The main reason for the poor show is the outdated syllabus. The CBSE and other state boards have periodically updated their syllabus. But for last 12 years we have not changed higher secondary syllabus,” said Sami. Sathiamoorthy, president, Tamil Nadu High and Higher Secondary Schools’ Headmasters Association.
