The bell rang promptly at 12.45 p.m. The deafening sound shattered the silence in the grand hallway, and scores of boys emerged from their classrooms holding stainless steel plates to break for lunch.
They instinctively formed a line, and headed for the canteen — a few hundred metres from the hallway — walking past a banner displaying photos of students in several rows and columns with marks by their side, and a board administering a “pledge of excellence”. In the opposite building, girls stick to a similar protocol. “They will be back in 45 minutes for the afternoon classes,” says an attender, who keeps tabs on those entering and leaving the premises.
This is a part of the day in the life of students who have enrolled for coaching for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) at Spiro Prime Education Institutes, a top school-cum coaching centre for competitive examinations in Namakkal district. The classes begin at 9 a.m. here, but the study hours start two hours before. After the noon classes, more study hours, and doubt-clearing sessions follow in the evening (with a few breaks, including for physical education), keeping the students busy till the night. The institute offers hostel facilities for students to stay through the year, and prepare for the test.
Such hostel facilities are not confined to Spiro. They are a common feature of the relatively big coaching centres of Namakkal. Much of it has to do with the district’s emergence as a ‘hub for competitive exams’, resulting in more parents from other districts of the State enrolling their wards here. In fact, Namakkal had the highest share of candidates scoring 650 and above in NEET UG 2024 — which is mandatory for admissions to medical courses in the country — from the State, and the second-highest in India. The figure was even better than that of the State capital, Chennai.
Besides, a perusal of the centre-wise data released by the National Testing Agency (which conducts NEET) on July 20, 2024 reveals that of over 6,100 students who wrote the test at the 11 centres in the district, 32 scored 700 and above; 313, between 650 and 699; and 300, between 600 and 649 . These are considered good scores to secure a seat in a government college.
(It is to be noted that while a centre-wise analysis of scores need not necessarily be attributed to the performance of the district, trainers and directors of some of the institutes in Namakkal that this reporter spoke to confirmed that those enrolling for coaching in the district are asked to choose Namakkal as the test centre, or themselves prefer it as the first choice to get more time for preparation).
Reasons aplenty
There are plenty of reasons for our performance, says S.M. Udhaiyakumar, Chairman and Managing Director, Spiro Prime Education Institutes. “Firstly, I will attribute it to the way we approach the curriculum, and provide individual attention. We talk to each student daily, understand their problems and help them resolve those. This gives us the results. This [NEET] is a highly competitive exam, and you constantly have to be by the students’ side — on an academic and a personal front,” he adds.
He further says that in a big city like Chennai, which has a significant number of coaching institutes and amenities for competitive exams, there may be several distractions. A day-scholar student who has enrolled for NEET coaching at a centre in Chennai may have to spend a lot of his/her time and energy on travel every day. “But in Namakkal, that may not be the case. Even if one is a day-scholar, neither much time nor energy is spent on commuting…”
Moreover, parents from the southern districts prefer to send their wards to Namakkal as it is closer, says Naveen Kumar, Director, Mayil Academy. “Sometimes parents decide to rent a house throughout the coaching period. In such cases, Namakkal, as a town, is more affordable. Some parents can also culturally bond with the district,” he says.
According to residents, one can get a single-room occupancy with a kitchen and an attached bathroom for a meagre sum of ₹7,000 a month within the town limits, or ₹5,000 or lesser outside the limits.
Besides, Mr. Naveen adds, the institutes in Namakkal keep their expectations of a student at the bare minimum before the course commences, contrary to institutes that expect too much from their students. “We teach from scratch, and don’t expect the students to be in the know of the concepts beforehand. The faculty understand the capabilities of a student who has completed his matric education, and train them accordingly,” adds Mr. Naveen.
Ultimately, Mr. Udhaiyakumar says, it ties down to how efficiently and intelligently one handles training and practice.
“The assignments, and individual attention are the two major differences that have helped me improve my performance,” says Yazhini, a repeat-student for NEET, who had dropped out of a top coaching institute in Chennai and joined Spiro. “There were too many members in the institute [in Chennai], and way too little practice sessions were offered. When I enquired about a better institute, people told me to go to Spiro here..,” she adds.
Spiro has about 20-odd faculty, and 600 students for the repeater batch (those who devote one year to prepare for NEET after their Class XII). This year, one of their candidates has secured over 700, and over a 100 of them, over 600. It offers bilingual coaching. The fee is ₹95,000 a year for the repeater course, and ₹1.5 lakh a year for the integrated course (coaching along with Plus One and Plus Two syllabi).
As for Mayil academy, its main branch is in Salem. It has helped some Tamil-medium students score over 600 in the test. Over 15 students from here have scored over 600 this year. The fee is ₹90,000 a year.
Delving deeper
Prior to foraying into competitive tests, Namakkal used to be a prominent district that churned out State toppers in the Plus Two examinations. However, the introduction of NEET and the Tamil Nadu government’s ban on declaration of Class X and XII toppers by institutions/schools on banners for the purpose of advertisement led to the decline of a merely Class 12-oriented coaching hub. However, Namakkal was quick to latch on to competitive exams.
In fact, S.P.N. Saravanan, Correspondent and Secretary, Green Park Educational Institutions, says the district was among the first in the State, and Green Park among the earliest of institutions, that realised the significance of introduction of NEET and calculated well ahead. Having been a teacher for 36 years, Dr. Saravanan, a recipient of the State government’s Dr. Radhakrishnan Award for Best Teacher in 2015, attributes much of the success of the district to having good teachers at the helm of affairs.
“At one point in time, more than 60% of the schools in Namakkal were run by teachers, who themselves hailed from poor backgrounds. The institutions that have boomed today have come from there, and hence, the primary focus is on the welfare of students,” he says, adding that being a teacher-director helps manage affairs better at the top in an educational institution. From preparing the schedule to setting the question papers, adopting a methodology, and designing the way of teaching, there is a wider scope for informed decision-making, Dr. Saravanan felt.
Perhaps the emphasis on quality teaching is why Green Park has an arduous recruitment drive for its faculty for competitive exams — a three-layered process that first mandates an aspirant to clear a prelims test, scoring over 60%, followed by a three-hour demo class for students of three different sections. Based on the students’ feedback, he/she may get a call for a personal interview, and only after that would a faculty be appointed. They are, however, paid handsomely, says Sachin Surya, academic director, Green Park Educational Institutions.
The institute has produced several 650 and above scores over the years, and this year’s topper, P. Rajneesh, who secured 720/720, had enrolled with the Green Park for an integrated course (NEET coaching along with Class XI, XII). He was offered a concession in fee on the basis of his performance, recalls Dr. Saravanan, adding that over 30 students of the institute had scored over 700 this year.
While the fee varies for individual, depending on the marks scored in Class XII and performance during the course of coaching, the institute charges ₹1.25 lakh a year on an average for a repeater student.
Students at the Spiro Prime Education Institute in Namakkal.
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu
Challenges to coaching
While finding the right faculty remained a challenge for the institutes in the initial stages of transitioning into coaching centres, imparting conceptual understanding for students who until then were accustomed to a style of rote learning was challenging.
“It takes more time to conceptually train a student of the State Board, as opposed to those from the CBSE. Some of them [State Board students] find it hard to quickly grasp the concepts,” says Ganesan of Fabulous NEET Academy, an institution that was started during the COVID-19 period.
However, faculty of top institutes have overcome the challenge, which they say is only observed during the initial phase of coaching. Rathishree, a faculty at Spiro, says “Contrary to what people think, it is possible to train the students conceptually within the 11-month-period. In cases where it is necessary, we avail of ‘smart’ lessons to effectively communicate the concept across to the student by way of animated lessons, among others. Only after that are the students tested and trained…”
The ideal way to address the root cause of the problem is to thoroughly familiarise students to the concepts of Classes X to XII in schools itself, says Sathiesh, Director, Feathers NEET Academy. “Coaching centres will always be here. But the schools should play their part. In a way, students opt for these centres to have a platform to study from, and focus more…,” he adds.
Approach to education
While the coaching centres have proved their mettle and tackled the challenges, a section of educationists feels there is a long way to go when it comes to coaching and education from a holistic perspective. The Tamil Nadu government, which opposes NEET, had constituted a high-level committee to study the impact of the test on medical admissions in the State, and the panel, headed by Justice A.K. Rajan, submitted the report in 2021. The report had pointed out that coaching-based exams such as NEET helped only those who ‘have’, as against those who ‘do not’, and those who cleared the test would only possess “test-taking skills” as opposed to high levels of reasoning, analytical, and psychosocial abilities that are essential to study medicine today.
L. Jawhar Nesan, former Vice-Chancellor of JSS Technical University, and a member of the committee told The Hindu, “The dynamics of medical education has changed from a disease-oriented model to a health-oriented model. What is required in the field today are judgmental and social skills, and these can only be imparted to students via a psychosocial approach — from Classes I to XII. A student who only focuses on coaching right from the sixth grade to 12th, and later takes a year off to prepare will never learn these skills…”
Besides, the all-round development of a student takes a hit when the students are spoon-fed concepts over a long period, says Balaji Sampath, educational activist and founder, AhaGuru. “The students that clear the test [and get admitted to government medical colleges] rarely have an ability to learn on their own. In postgraduation, and pH.D., the approach is different and one needs to think on their feet. But in the coaching centres, the students are trained to react [to a problem] the way the teacher has taught,” he adds.
However, directors of some of the institutes that the reporter spoke to contend that the students develop commendable interpersonal skills, and have a thorough understanding of the concepts. “Usually, students who lack adequate exposure to the world, and have a low level of maturity are the ones for whom all-round development takes a hit. To inculcate such values in children, the schools will have to step in. At our coaching centre [Feathers], we provide counselling to students, and exclusively have people with a degree in psychology for this purpose,” adds Mr. Sathiesh.
A senior government doctor, however, feels that the students have adapted well and there has been a drastic improvement in their mindset in the past few years. “Initially, we used to have batches of students who would have studied at the centres in the same district, and the mindset [to studies] used to be similar within those batches. But now, the students have transcended that, and have become multi-talented. Besides, it is majorly the ones who secure admissions through the 7.5% quota who face a lot of struggle in the initial stages. However, they too have picked up…,” he adds.
Monetary challenge
Another major issue that the report flags is the affordability of the coaching centres, which it says is out of reach for students of financially and socially backward communities. When pointed out that top institutes do admit such students on concessions and scholarships, Mr. Nesan said, “I only see it as an effort to promote their business, nothing more. The earnings that these centres accumulate at the end of the year far exceeds the concessions and scholarships they offer. The welfare is only at the tip of the iceberg,” he says, and points to the disparity in the success rates of government [the free training provided at district-level for a brief period] and private coaching centres for NEET.
In Namakkal, however, government data show that there has been a slight, but steady increase in the enrolment of students for MBBS courses in government medical colleges under the 7.5% horizontal reservation (offered for students who pass out of government schools). As many as 54 students from the district — 15 in 2020-21; 18 in 2021-22; and 21 in 2022-23 — secured admissions for MBBS courses in government colleges. “These students were also trained in the free government coaching classes for a month in the district,” confirmed a government source.
What can these centres do?
Sourav Mondal, Head of FITJEE Medical, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, says that allowing students the space to generate their own questions, as against merely solving questions of various types, would be the way towards a long-term reformation. “Teaching methods will not change drastically because finally, a student has to solve questions and get answers. But students can be allowed to generate their own questions using the concepts they learn. This will pave the way for thinking. The understanding will tremendously increase, and help students in the long run,” he says.
Mr. Sampath, on the other hand, feels that the centres would be reluctant to change their ways as they have consistently produced results. However, they can get the students thoroughly trained on a conceptual front for a few months of the course, and use the remaining months in training them to solve the test. “The centres can divide the coaching schedule for this purpose, and the last six to eight months alone can be used for training, in the interest of students. The stress level of students will also go down in the process…,” he adds.
In all, the centres have devised a way to beat the system and consistently produce results. Though the results are confined to only a few top institutes, the district has emerged a top player in this field, and shall remain so for a long time, says the director of a coaching institute. “We [the district] found success in the egg business, and now in the exam business,” he adds.
