Civic polls to affect NEET coaching

NEET training during holidays assumes significance, because the students were to attend full-time coaching classes until the reopening of schools. With the free NEET coaching classes starting very late – only by October – the government had been planning to give full-time training to the students on all half-yearly holidays. At present, about 15,000 students in government and government-aided schools who want to appear for NEET have registered for the free coaching classes. The classes are conducted at 412 centres across the State by engaging experts and also former students who cracked the national test.

The training was given to students on weekends and the regular coaching was given during the quarterly exams. As the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission notified local body elections on December 27 and 30, all government schools will be engaged in the poll-related process. More than 4,000 government school teachers will also be deployed for election duty. Before the election notification, the Directorate of School Education had declared half-yearly holiday from December 24 to January 2. However, after the election notification, which also said that the poll results would be announced on January 2, the holiday was extended by a day to January 3.

As the NEET coaching is being conducted in government schools, the authorities cannot find any alternative places to conduct the training classes for students. A senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next that it was unfortunate for the NEET trainees that elections were being conducted during half-yearly holidays. “As schools and teachers will be engaged in poll related duties, it will be difficult to conduct NEET coaching classes till January 2,” he said, adding that the holiday period would be compensated by organising extra classes to the students in the coming months. The official also pointed out that students who attend the training classes were instructed to go through their guides and books during this holiday period. NEET 2020 will be held on May 3 at more than 2,500 exam centres across the country.