More govt students cleared NEET, bucking overall trend

CHENNAI: While the overall pass percentage of the students who appeared for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) in the State dropped by almost six per cent — from 57.4 per cent in 2021 to 51.2 per cent in 2022 — the performance of the government school students has improved.

Giving a breakup of numbers, School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi said while 17,972 students from government and government-aided schools registered for NEET this year, 12,840 took the exams and 4,447 students cracked it.

The pass percentage of government school students stands at 35 per cent this year. In 2021, 8,061 NEET students had written the test, while only 1,957 cleared it. The pass percentage in the State improved this year to 35 per cent from 24.27 per cent in 2021.

In Chennai, as many as 172 candidates appeared for the test, of which 104 passed.

Last year, 480 students registered and 130 passed. In most districts, 20-25 per cent of government students passed the exam. The lowest performance was in the Tirupathur district, where only seven per cent of the government school students qualified for NEET.

As many as 131 candidates who appeared in Villupuram district have passed, with a 100 per cent pass percentage.

Several districts including Virudhunagar, Salem, The Nilgiris, Perambalur, Madurai and Villupuram recorded almost 100 per cent pass percentage for government school students. Though the pass percentage of government school students in Tamil Nadu improved, only 6.5 per cent of students are from government schools of the total students qualified