Earlier, Tamilnadu Professional Courses Entrance Examination[TNPCEE] was the entrance exam in place for admitting students to engineering and medical colleges in the state of Tamilnadu. This was scrapped in 2006 and was replaced with a single-window system of counseling, and seats were allocated based on the marks scored in 12th main examinations. 85% of seats under the state quota were duly filled up based on the 12th examination mark and the remaining 15% of seats based on scores of AIPMT. Before 2016, there were approximately 70-80 university, and state entrance examinations were conducted for admission to secure an
Undergraduate medical or dental seat from any of the 25,330 seats in government colleges and 24,660 seats in India. For a medical aspirant, Multiple exams meant paying multiple exam fees[ranging from Rs.1200 to 6,000 per exam] and traveling across the country, which proved to be expensive and cumbersome. And moreover, universities were manipulating scores to admit students in their favor, which eventually lead to incapable students being admitted to become certified doctors of the future. The transparency of the state-organized and university-held entrance examinations was a matter of doubt, always. Despite being considered illegal, some private medical colleges were collecting capitation fees of about Rs. Fifty lakhs and even more, to admit students.
The journey of NEET
The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test(NEET), was first proposed by theMedical Council of India and the Dental Council of India in 2012, as a call to standardize entrance examinations all over the country for admission to medical courses. The exam was delayed by a year, though it was initially proposed to start in 2012.
Due to various reasons, initially, several states, including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, opposed it. The common reason quoted by these states was that there was a huge difference in the syllabus of the state board and central board. In 2013, the Supreme court of India imposed a stay on NEET exams and called it unconstitutional.
Rise of NEET Coaching Centres :
Later in 2016, the apex court reviewed its order and said that students planning to pursue Undergraduate medical courses should apply and appear for NEET. The parliament gave a nod to Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill, 2016, and The Dentists (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which meant admission to private and state-run universities and colleges to take place based on NEET. Due to this, there’s a boom in this new course; students are looking for the best NEET coaching center in Coimbatore, Chennai & other parts of TamilNadu to join and get places in highly qualified institutes namely Hayagreeva, Axent Academy, Vesper Academy in the main capital Chennai and Coimbatore the Manchester of India.
Is it true that NEET reduces the state quotas?
No, NEET doesn’t affect any of the state quotas, and they remain the same. The previously adopted practice of 85% of seats for candidates from that state and the remaining 15% percent to be filled by the central pool remains the same.
NEET doesn’t affect reservations, which means in Tamilnadu, the 69% medical seats that were previously for the reserved class still remain the same. Admissions to that 69%, which was based on class 12 state board scores, will now be based on NEET eligibility and scores. Still, after NEET, you will be competing with your own state people on the majority. Previously, TN
students have to undertake AIPMT to be able to secure medical seats in other states. But with NEET, they are open to secure a seat from the 15% central pool of any other state. Previously CBSE students who had very little chance to enter medical colleges inTNwill now have a better chance of admission.
The only change is private colleges cannot sell their seats in the open market, and they will have to admit students only based on their NEET eligibility.
Until 2017, NEET was offered only in two languages- Hindi and English. But after several states pointed out the linguistic barrier, the NEET exam is offered in 10 languages, including Tamil.
What is the syllabus of NEET?
Though it was propagated that NEET was based on CBSE syllabus, MCI has framed the syllabus considering all the state syllabi along with NCERT. It’s a common syllabus, and the exam is being conducted by the National Testing Agency[NTA].
Tamilnadu board has considered a revamp of the state board syllabus to meet the standards of the NEET questions. It comes as a sigh of relief, to note that the revised 11th standard and 12thstandard[2019-2020] syllabus covers almost all the questions that were asked in the 2019 NEET exam, 23 questions were from the 11th syllabus and 22 were from the yet-to- be-implemented 12th syllabus. This revision to concept-oriented and practical learning is a huge move and the most awaited transformation from rote learning! All thanks to NEET!
TN Students Accepted NEET & started scoring High.
This year, out of 1,23,078 students who appeared for the exam from TN, 59,785 students have cleared NEET, and the qualifying percentage has spiked from 39. 56% in the last year to 48.57% in 2019. In 2018, only two students had scored above 600[out of 720], and 213 students had scored between 500-600 marks. But in 2019, this number has increased to 135 students scoring above 600 and 1194(increase by five times) have scored between 500-600. Bingo!