The DMK and its allies like the VCK, MDMK and Communists have been blindly opposing the NEET medical entrance exam, ever since it was made mandatory by the Supreme Court. These parties along with their minions in the media have successfully peddled a narrative demonising the exam saying that it puts students from rural, socially and economically deprived students at disadvantage.
However, the students of Tamil Nadu have been coming out with shining colours smashing the propaganda of the pseudo-social justice warriors to smithereens.
Here is a list of few of the students who have cracked NEET and have secured a medical seat this year.
Yuvanraj from Sooleswaranpatti in Pollachi who studied at the S.V. Government Higher Secondary School in Samathur has secured a medical seat at the Perundurai government medical college. He belongs to a Scheduled Caste community. His mother rears goats and works as a daily wage labourer in a coconut coir farm.
Manohar Nitin of Ambalamula Government High School in Bandalur of Nilgiris district has secured medical seats in government colleges. Manohar Nitin hails from the hamlet of Manchala Moola. His parents are engaged in cattle rearing and farming. He did not take any coaching and cleared the exam on his own.
Anagha who is also from the same school hailing from Ayyankolli Parivaram area, has successfully cleared NEET and has opted for dental studies. Her father Balachandran is a farmer and her mother Pradeepa has been working as a daily wage labourer.
Thangapaechi from Panamooppanpatty village in Madurai has cleared NEET twice. Her parents are daily wage earners working on jasmine fields. During her school days, Thangapaechi used to go to pick jasmine from nearby fields to financially support her family. Today, she has secured a seat at the Mookaambigai Medical College in Kanyakumari district.
Prakash Raj, a son of a farmer living in Anandalpatti village in Thiruvannamalai district, has secured a seat at the Chennai Medical College. He completed his Class 12 at Mansurabad Government Higher Secondary School in 2018 with 950 marks. He had appeared for NEET in 2018 and 2019 and got 130 and 341 marks in the respective years. Though he got a seat at a private self-financing dental college during his second attempt, he did not join there. He prepared for the third time with the guidance of his teachers and secured 512 marks out of 720 and has been ranked second in the internal quota rank list. Prakash Raj sees himself becoming a cardiologist or a nephrologist in the future.
A daughter of a lorry driver, Haritha, is a student of Kandili Panchayat’s Natham Government Higher Secondary School in Tirupattur district. She had scored 530 marks in her 12th board exams and 460 in NEET securing the first rank amongst the government schools in the district. She has now secured a seat in Stanley Medical College, through the 7.5% internal quota for government school students.
Fourteen government school students from Madurai have secured an MBBS seat this year. Five students from just one single government school in Madurai have cracked NEET and have secured seats in government medical colleges across the state. Priyanka who had scored 414 marks in NEET has emerged as the topper in Madurai district and has got admission in Madurai Government Medical College. Deepasree who got 301 marks has got a seat in Pudukkottai Government Medical College. Vinodini who got 283 marks has got Virudhunagar Medical College. Sangeetha who got 258 marks has secured a seat at the Madurai Velammal Medical College. Kausalya with 226 marks has got a seat in the Madurai CSI Dental College. This year, atleast 20 government school students from Madurai are set to get a medical college seat.
Seven students from Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Chennai’s Ashok Nagar have got MBBS seats through the 7.5% quota. Praveena G, whose father runs a milk booth in Kodambakkam scored 353 in NEET and has got a seat in Omandurar Government Medical College. Rijuvana Yasin who got 279 marks in NEET has got a seat in Tirunelveli Government Medical College. All of them hail from middle class families and have cracked the exam without going to coaching class and just through self-study and teacher’s guidance.
7 students from Tirunelveli Corporation Kallanai Girls’ Higher Secondary School have cracked NEET and have secured seats in different government medical colleges in the state. Njazhini, Isakkiyammal and Nakshatra Priya have secured a seat in the Tirunelveli Government Medical College. Gayatri has secured a seat in the Thoothukudi Government Medical College while Soundarya has secured a seat in the Kanyakumari Government Medical College. Kirthika has got admission in the PSG Medical College and Afreen Fathima has got a seat at a private medical college in Coimbatore.
Three government school students from Kodaganallur in Tirunelveli district who had completed class 12 from Nadukallur government higher secondary school, will become the first doctors from their village after nearly a century. U Divya who scored 283 marks has got a seat at the Virudhunagar Government Medical College. M Udhaya Selvam and S Vishnu Priya have also got seats in government colleges under the 7.5% quota. All three of them belong to agricultural families.
Bala Surya, a student of Kalapal Government High School near Mannargudi in Thiruvarur district, scored 435 marks in the NEET and was ranked 1st in the district and 18th in the state. His father Suryamoorthy works as a taxi driver.
Fifteen students from Cuddalore district who had studied in government schools have secured seats (12 are MBBS and 3 BDS) in government medical colleges.
Satya, daughter of a couple who work as daily wage labourers in a stone quarry has got a seat in Government Medical College in Vellore. She studied at the Pennathur Government High School and did not go for any coaching class. She cracked the exam with guidance from her school teachers and self-study.
Sangavi, a girl belonging to a Scheduled Tribe community from a small hamlet named M. Nanjappanur in Thirumalayampalayam of Coimbatore District has scored 202 marks out of 720 and has qualified NEET. She is the first girl in their hamlet to complete class 12 and pursue higher studies. Her father had died a year ago and her mother is partially blind.
This is not the end of the list.
34 government school students from Pudukkottai district have got admission in medical colleges out of which 19 of them have got into government colleges.
9 students from Thiruvarur and 11 from Thanjavur have got admitted to medical colleges, six of whom have secured admission in government medical colleges.
Salem has topped this year with 74 government school students getting admitted into medical colleges.
The number of government school students who have got admissions in some of the other districts is as follows – Dharmapuri (33), Pudukkottai (31), Thiruvallur (26), Tiruvannamalai (24), Chennai, Tiruppur and Kancheepuram (20 each), Villupuram (19) Erode, Tenkasi and Madurai (18 each), Cuddalore (17), Karur (13), Namakkal (12), Tirunelveli (11), and Theni (10) and Tiruchirapalli (9).
For the first time, Tamil Nadu is witnessing a historic transformation in medical education. The aspirations of students from the bottom of the socio-economic ladder are becoming reality with a record number of them entering medical colleges.
These are not just stories of achievement of these children. These are stories of hope that will inspire many like them. These are testimonies that have shattered the DMK’s propaganda on NEET to smithereens.
It is high time that the DMK and its allies accept defeat over their promise to ban NEET and move on to fulfil other things they’ve promised the Tamil people. It would do good for the DMK to stop the petty politics over the matter andnot put the future of Tamil Nadu’s children in jeopardy.
At this moment, we hope the words of Nanjappanur Sangavi drive some sense to those who are playing ugly politics over the exam. Sangavi has asked medical aspirants like her to not take failures to heart and take extreme steps. She says that with hard work and right guidance from teachers, anybody can succeed not just in this exam but in life.
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