Govt launches 100 NEET instruction centres, study kits
Chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and school education minister K A Sengottaiyan on Monday released the first volume of the question bank for competitive exams, including NEET, and launched 100 training centres for government school students. While 25 centres began functioning from Monday, the rest will start by December, Sengottaiyan said.
“A total of 73,000 students have applied for the coaching and 412 centres will be set up in the later stages. The government is taking many measures to ensure that all students will be trained to clear any entrance exam. Smart classrooms, distribution of laptops and educational CDs will aid in making the learning process better for children and will also facilitate learning from home,” he said.
The 25 training centres have been set up across different locations, including Gobichettipalayam, Namakkal, Edappadi and Uthangarai. The government tied up with SPEED Medical Institute, a coaching centre, to impart the training via video interactions to different locations simultaneously. The training will be provided free for Class XII students keen on appearing for competitive exams.
Dr K Vinayak Senthil, managing director of SPEED, said the 25 centres would impart training via VSAT technology. The coaching will now be conducted on Saturdays and Sundays from 9am to 5pm and may be extended to weekdays ahead of the exams.
“The sessions will involve live sessions where students can interact with teachers and ask doubts with the help of coordinators. It will be like any other classroom session,” he said. There are around 150 trainers presently.
Video tests were also conducted wherein the minister interacted with centres in other locations to check the speed, visual and auditory clarity of interactions.
“We will release around 30 books, chapter by chapter. Each book will have sections on physics, chemistry, botany and zoology and will have topic based MCQs. This was the first book that was handed over to students on Monday,” SPEED Medical Institute’s Venkat said.
Stating that the need of the hour is to equip students to take competitive exams, chief minister Palaniswami said Tamil Nadu’s syllabus was no less than those other states follow, despite questions being raised about the competence of students. He expressed confidence that, given adequate training, state board students could take on any competitive exam.
