40 NEET aspirants in Ranipet get tabs for exam preparation

RANIPET: The district administration created a record by providing digital tablets for 40 school toppers in the district under the corporate social responsibility funds, said Ranipet Collector S Valarmathi.

While districts have been using various donor-sponsored programmes to help government school students study for the annual NEET exams, Ranipet district thought up this idea as it would help students to study a specific topic at the touch of a button. Revealing this to DT Next, Chief Education Officer P Usha said, “though we provide students all the guidance they need, ultimately they have to study on their own and so we felt they could save time if they were provided tabs with all relevant study material uploaded.”

Asked how the 40 students were chosen, Collector Valarmathi said, “The 40 are district level toppers from various government schools.” Asked when and how this welcome scheme would be expanded to others, she said, “We will try it out on a trial basis for a month, get feedback from the 40 students and then depending on the availability of funds extend it to other NEET aspirants in the district.”

However, enquiries revealed that though Ranipet boasts of being an industrial district with SIPCOT and SIDCO industrial estates, BHEL and its ancillaries functioning here, put off handing over CSR funds to the district administration by stating that their head offices in Chennai had already released the amounts at their discretion.

District officials are now talking to such units stating that as they were functioning in Ranipet district the excuse of head offices handing out funds from Chennai would not work.