COURTESY HT OCT 21
Delhi govt school students reap rich haul in NEET, JEE
Fareeha Iftikhar
fareeha.iftilhar@htdigital.in
New Delhi : A 20-year-old whose mother works at a doctor’s clinic, the son of an employee at a small book depot earning Rs 5,000 a month, and a first-generation learner who could not attend coaching due to his family’s financial condition — these are among Delhi government school students who cleared the country’s most competitive engineering and medical exams — JEE and NEET — this year.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who lauded these achievers, said on Tuesday that 569 Delhi government school students cleared the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) -- the entrance exam for medical courses -- this year, the results of which were declared last Friday.
“379 (67%) out of the 569 Delhi government school students who cracked NEET this year are girls. At least 48 of these students scored more than 500 out of 720 in NEET. At least 29 of these students are from Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya (SKV) in MolarBand, 24 are from SKV Yamina Vihar (C1) and 23 are from SKV Noor Nagar. Girls from Delhi government schools performed really well in the medical entrance test,” Kejriwal said.
Among the students lauded by Kejriwal during a digital press conference was Tamanna Goyal, 20, who did not know about the existence of NEET till she passed from Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya (RPVV) in Rohini Sec-11 in 2018. She lives with her mother, a staffer at a private doctor’s clinic, and a younger brother, in Shahbad Dairy.
She has scored 695 marks in NEET and secured 11th rank in the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category. “My mother works at a clinic and she wanted me to prepare for medical exams after I finished schooling. I got in touch with my school and they suggested I take entrance exams for a coaching centre to get a scholarship and I managed to get one. My mother is so happy now as I am going to be the first-ever doctor in the family,” she said.
Khush Garg, 18, who secured the 709 all-India rank in NEET could not join a coaching class due to his family’s financial condition. A resident of Krishna Nagar, whose father runs a small shop in Shahdara, Garg said that with the help of his school teachers in RPVV Gandhi Nagar, he managed to clear NEET. “The coaching centres were asking for Rs 2-3 lakh and we could not afford that. I decided to start self-study. With the help of my teachers and a strict study schedule, I managed to crack the exam,” he said.
Kejriwal said “talent isn’t determined by money”. “This is a testament that Delhi government schools are undergoing a revolutionary change and students from poor families studying in these schools are paving the way to success. I believe providing equal and quality education to all is the only way by which we can eradicate poverty from this nation, an issue we have been fighting for the past 70 years. These students are inspirations for all those who are pursuing their schooling. If these students with limited means can do it, so can you,” he said.
“I want to promise to every student that they need not worry about financial resources. For all the students who cleared 12th and who lack resources for higher education, but have secured admission in colleges, the Delhi government has scholarships to offer, And any student, rich or poor, can get a loan amount of up to Rs 10 lakh without submitting any collateral, from the Delhi government and can exercise their right to education,” he said.
This year, 443 Delhi government school students cleared the JEE (Main) and, of them 53 further cracked the JEE (advanced) for admission in IITs.