TN: Online tutorial program to be introduced in government schools for NEET

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Government has launched an initiative comprising an online tutoring program for 10,000 class 12 students from government schools of the state, with the view to help them prepare for the CBSE based NEET.

Tamil Nadu state presently stands at a disadvantage with the introduction of NEET, as it is not a CBSE board, has a language barrier and has been admitting students based on their state board class 12 results for the past few years.

K Pandiarajan, School Education Minister, said that the online tutorial platform attempt was being coordinated between the state government and education entrepreneur,K Swaminathan, who was responsible for the technological inputs of the program. This project constitutes low cost e programs containing subject related modules and will find base in a number of state run educational institutions.

However, it is believed that government schools running these e programs themselves suffer a setback, for they have no idea about how to prepare students for the CBSE based NEET, for the medical college entrance exam. Lack of adequate resources and faculty strength are the biggest handicaps, when compared to private schools which conduct special classes, outsourcing faculty to help students clear the competitive CBSE centric medical exam.

NEET has put a brake on the state government’s counseling process for getting students into medical colleges. The online class initiation is to act as the bridge between the CBSE textbooks and the CBSE based NEET exam.

"We do not want our students to miss out on the opportunity of securing admissions to medical colleges in the state," said the minister, adding that the program aimed at giving access of learning material to approximately 10,000 students.

In spite of the efforts being made, the sate government will continue to stand up against the government’s stance on Supreme Court supported NEET, said the Minister. The online attempt he said, was merely to ensure that government school students don’t stand to disadvantage.

Government school teachers when asked, admitted to the TOI, that they had no plans of training children for competitive examinations like NEET.

"Due to lack of awareness, many students may not even enroll for such competitive exams," another teacher said, speaking of NEET.

Read also:TN: Doctors protest against NEET