As many as 1,17,502 aspirants who have registered for the National Eligibility-cum- Entrance Test (NEET), to be held on Sunday, will take the test across 14 centres in the State.
They are vying for around 7,000 seats, including 3,250 seats in the 26 government medical colleges. The Directorate of Medical Education is expecting to add 50 more seats to the Kanniyakumari Medical College. If it materialises, the State will have 3,300 seats under the government quota.
From this year, 7.5% of the seats will be reserved for students who have studied from Class 6 to 12 in government schools.
There was much expectation that the State would have 1,650 additional seats this year as it was planning to add 11 new colleges. But the COVID-19 pandemic has put paid to these plans. Director of Medical Education R. Narayana Babu said the construction of college buildings was in full swing, and in some cases, the buildings would be ready within three months. “November 15 is the last date for the Medical Council of India to receive applications. Once we apply for inspection, we can expect permission to run the colleges only in January 2021. The seats will be available for the next academic year,” he said.
Cause for concern
The difficulty in accessing information is a cause for concern among parents and students. Unlike the Central Board of Secondary Education, the National Testing Agency that has taken over the task of conducting entrance examinations for higher educational institutions does not provide details of the exam centres on its website. Only when candidates download their hall tickets do they get to know their centres. Candidates have, in the past, found it tough to find their centres.
A candidate at Avadi had to search for three hours to find the school where he would take the exam. Another candidate, from Tiruporur, who was assigned a centre at Thousand Lights, said she did not know where her centre was. “I will have to find out on the day of the exam,” she said. She is equipped for the test. “I have a small bottle of sanitiser, a mask and gloves,” she said.
