Tamil Nadu, a state that has vehemently opposed the National Eligibility cum Entrance test (NEET) for being non-inclusive towards student hailing from rural areas, and in general not acknowledging linguistic diversity of the country, broke its own record by bagging the highest tally in the top 50 positions among those who cleared the exam, The Indian Express reported.
The NEET topper this year is from TN, which also has the third-highest number of achievers. This a huge difference from the last time when the state didn’t have any representation among the toppers.
On June 13, the National Testing Agency (NTA) released the NEET undergraduate results, revealing that four students from Tamil Nadu were in the top 10. Tamil Nadu’s Prabhanjan J shared the top rank with Bora Varun Chakravarthi from Andhra Pradesh with a perfect score of 720. Kautav Bauri from the Dalit community secured the third position.
According to The Indian Express report, data from 2019 and 2021 show that Tamil Nadu had zero representation in the top 50 ranks. This changed last year with two students entering the list, and this year, the state has six students among the top 50. Tamil Nadu is only trailing behind Delhi and Rajasthan when it comes to toppers.
The report further analyses its correlation with the recent data of more students from Tamil Nadu who have scored 95 per cent and above.
Last year, M K Stalin went ahead and introduced a bill to exempt Tamil Nadu students from NEET, which has not received the President's nod yet.