TN Health Dept commence counselling for students post-NEET results

Chennai, June 15 (IANS) The Tamil Nadu Health Department has commenced counselling for students who have not cleared the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET), the results of which were announced a couple of days before.

State Health Minister Ma Subramanian, in a statement, said that of the 1.44 lakh students who have appeared for the NEET in Tamil Nadu, 54 per cent have cleared the exam and his department have collated the details of 65,823 students who have not cleared the examination.

Counsellors from helpline '104' and 'TeleMANAS 14416' will reach out to the students who need counselling, he said, adding that the counsellors will speak to the students through helplines and if necessary to the parents of these students.

Counsellors have started speaking to students who have taken the NEET since May and had managed to speak to 54,374 students. The minister said that of these 54,374 students to whom the counsellors have reached out to, 177 were high risk.

"These 177 students were struggling with their mental health and counsellors are regularly speaking to them. District level counsellors have visited their homes to address their concerns."

The minister also said that Tamil Nadu continues to strongly oppose NEET and added that the state government had opposed the proposed move of the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) to hold common counselling.

Ma Subramanian said that the NEET would gravely affect the 7.5 per cent reservation in medical admissions for students from government schools and marginalised backgrounds.

Meanwhile, the Health Minister lauded J. Prabanjan from Tamil Nadu who topped the NEET rank list. The minister also congratulated three other students who have reached the first ten positions in the NEET at the all India level.