Coimbatore district sees 78.63% attendance for NEET

Coimbatore district witnessed 78.63% attendance in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) held at 16 centres here on Sunday.

As per the details given by the coordinators of the examination in the district, 9,206 candidates from various districts wrote the examination here. While 11,708 candidates had enrolled to write the test, 2,502 did not appear.

At one centre near Sulur in Coimbatore, the examination for a section of students was delayed for nearly two hours after they were given question booklets in English though they had chosen to write the test in Tamil.

Koushik, a candidate from Anthiyur, said that he and other candidates who had chosen Tamil medium were shocked when they got question booklets in English. He told mediapersons that Tamil question booklet was given around 4 p.m., two hours after the scheduled time.

Candidates were given varied timings to undergo screening before entering examination centres in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. They were admitted to halls before 2 p.m. The test ended at 5 p.m.

P. Sunitha, a candidate from Erode, said that questions from biology and chemistry were easy.

Many candidates found questions from physics moderately difficult. A few candidates, who had taken the test last year felt that Sunday’s examination was comparatively easy.

M. Venkatesh, parent of a candidate from Dharmapuri, said that he hired a cab to bring his son to the examination centre in time.

P.S. Martin, principal of Nava Bharath National School on Sathyamangalam Road, and Nimitha P., principal of SSVM World School at Pattanam, were the coordinators for NEET in Coimbatore district.

A maximum of 12 candidates were admitted to a hall for the test where two invigilators were present.

Despite efforts made by the police, physical distancing was not followed by candidates and attenders outside most of the centres.

Coimbatore City and Rural Police deployed adequate number of personnel at the examination centres for crowd management.

The exam was held for the first time in Tiruppur district on Sunday.

Official sources said that while NEET has been regularly held in Coimbatore district in the past, this was the first time that examination centres were set up in Tiruppur. There were two examination centres, with 720 and 360 candidates allotted respectively. Of the total 1,080 candidates allotted, 921 wrote the examination.

A total of 90 rooms were arranged in both the centres. To ensure personal distancing as part of the COVID-19 precautionary measures, only 12 tables with a distance of three feet between two tables were arranged for each room. Candidates entered the school with masks and their body temperatures were checked at the entrance.

In Salem, the examination was held at 30 centres. A total of 15,138 students had applied for the examination.

Members of All India Youth Front protested in front of one of the centres in Salem demanding cancellation of examination.

In Namakkal, arrangements were made for 4,839 students to attend the examination at nine centres, and according to officials, 86.79% candidates attended the examination. Special buses were operated by TNSTC between districts and within cities to examination centres.

Democratic Youth Federation of India had set up help desk at the new bus stand premises to assist students coming from other places.