The results of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for the year 2020 were declared on Friday (October 16).
Tamil Nadu where Dravidian political parties have been doing politics over NEET asking for the scrapping of the exam saw 57.44% students clearing it, a 8.87% increase from last year’s 48.57%.
Srijan R, a native of Vellakovil in Tirupur district secured the all India 8th rank with a score of 710 out of 720 and a percentile of 99.99. Mohanaprabha Ravichandran scored 705 securing the 52nd rank while G Swetha from the state secured 62nd rank with a score of 702.
In a remarkable feat, N. Jeevith Kumar, and student of Silvarpatti Government Higher Secondary School in Theni district who studied in Tamil medium scored 664 out of 720. He has secured 1823 rank at the national level. This is is the first time a government school student from Tamil Nadu has made it to the top.
Jeevith Kumar’s father K. Narayanamoorthi is a goat herder while his mother N. Parameswari is a MGNREGA worker. He had joined a coaching institute in Namakkal. Jeevith Kumar had completed 12th std in 2018-19 academic year. In his first attempt at NEET he scored 190 marks.
Out of the 121617 students who had registered for the exam, 99610 appeared and 57215 have qualified.
A significant rise was observed in the number of candidates who took the exam in Tamil with a total of 17,101 candidates. 1,017 candidates took the exam in Tamil in NEET 2019.
Tamil Nadu has seen a consistent increase in the number and percentage of students clearing NEET. In 2018, the pass percentage was 39.56% with 45336 students clearing the exam. In 2019, it increased to 48.57% and this year 57.44% students have cleared the exam.
Following the poor performance of Tamil Nadu students in the previous year exams, owing to the sub-standard Samacheer Kalvi syllabus that rendered students ineligible to shine in competitive exams, the Tamil Nadu government undertook the exercise of revamping the syllabus and textbooks to bring it on par with CBSE standard. Teachers were also trained on the new syllabus and many coaching facilities for rural students were opened to prepare for NEET.
Earlier, professors who were part of the textbook committee of the Tamil Nadu School Education Department had told that, 97% of the questions in biology, chemistry and physics in this year’s NEET were from the textbooks of the Government of Tamil Nadu based on the new syllabus.
They have told that 87 questions (54% from class 11, 46% from class 12) in biology, 43 questions (47% from class 11, 53% from class 12) in chemistry and 44 questions (45% from class 11, 55% from class 12) in physics have been taken from the latest 11th and 12th textbooks brought out by the Tamil Nadu. Deputy Director of State Council of Education S Shameem, Research and Training (SCERT) had said that the Tamil Nadu textbooks had covered more questions this year than the NCERT textbooks.
In all, 174 questions of the total 180 were said to have been covered in the syllabus brought out by Tamil Nadu government for class 11 and class 12. The new syllabus is said to have bridged the gap establishing a level playing field.
The performance of Tamil Nadu students in NEET has come as a setback to political parties that have been doing unwarranted politics over the exam.