Tamil Nadu Govt Announces NEET Coaching Guidelines For School Students Amidst DMK's Signature Campaign Against The Exam

Amidst the signature campaign being conducted by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) to collect 50 lakh signatures against the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for medical aspirants, the School Education Department on Thursday (2 November) announced guidelines to prepare government school students for NEET as well as the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) that is conducted for engineering.

A report by The Hindu stated that the coaching would be provided from 4 PM to 5.30 PM on all working days to the students who are interested. School headmasters have been asked to prepare a list of the students.

During the half-yearly and annual holidays, the coaching would be conducted full-time.

The training would be provided by teachers from government and government aided schools and committees would be formed at various levels, i.e., at the school level, district level and state level to prepare the syllabus, study materials and mock tests for students, train teachers and monitor the implementation of the programme.

The signature campaign of the DMK has been criticised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). BJP state president K Annamalai alleged that students were being forced to put their signatures.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), he wrote, "Last week, a DMK MLA went to a school uninvited and incited suicidal thoughts in the minds of young children. And today, out of sheer desperation, the DMK men have ferried out Govt School Children to sign their propaganda against NEET Examination. Thiru @mkstalin, schoolchildren are not your political pawns to promote your son’s defunct propaganda."