NEET: private schools get into coaching mode

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Several private schools in the district, including a good number in and around the city, are apparently transforming into coaching centres to prepare students for the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET).

These schools have put up notice boards prominently about their month-long crash courses in NEET. Some of them also offer hostel facilities and transport, giving a tough competition to private coaching centres.

The announcement on the notice board include the duration of training, number of tests, profile of faculties and even mock counselling and ranking.

Some of the schools have roped in teachers from States such as Andhra Pradesh and Telengana that have traditionally fared well in all national level competitive examinations.

Inquiries reveal that the schools charge anywhere between Rs. 15,000 and Rs. 25,000 for a month-long crash course. A State-board school near Tiruverumbur, for instance, charges Rs. 22,000 for the classes held on all days barring Sundays.

Although candidates from the State Board can opt for question papers in Tamil, students in the vernacular medium continue to be at a disadvantage. For, be it private schools that offer the crash courses, or the NEET coaching centres functioning out of government schools, the training is imparted mostly in English.

This trend of ‘eleventh-hour coaching’ has come under criticism from experienced teachers of science subjects.

“The crash courses are not going to ensure high scores for beginners. Sustained training is necessary for NEET. At the most, the students will be able to take up the exam with some idea about the pattern of questioning,” a zoology teacher with over two decades of experience in handling higher secondary classes, said.

According to a school administrator, the students are acclimatised to time management and to answer the 180 questions - 45 each in physics and chemistry and 90 in biology - within a duration of three hours.

“The students are put through the process of answering the multiple choice questions. They need to be familiarised with the marking system. Each item carries four marks, each correct response will fetch four marks, and for incorrect ones, one mark will be deducted from the total score. Hence, students are encouraged to desist from answering questions that they were not comfortable with,” an expert trainer said.

At most of the centres, the higher focus is on botany and zoology since in the event of two or more candidates getting equal marks, the rank will be determined in the order of preference of higher marks in these subjects, the trainer said.

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