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(This article is part of Paper Heist, The Quint's special project bringing out the inside story of India's paper leak scandal. Please support our coverage and help us do more such deep-dive stories.)
Of India's 50 *top-scoring National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Test (NEET) centres, 37 are from Rajasthan’s Sikar district.
In Kota, while 74 students scored above 700, the number of students in the top 1,000 rank holders increased from 13 in 2023 to 35 in 2024.
Ranked third-best city in terms of performance, 544 out of the total 12,443 students scored over 650 marks in Kerala's Kottayam.
No other city/town in Tamil Nadu came as close as Namakkal to the proportion of candidates (5.1%) scoring above 650.
It is a well-known fact that competitive exams such as NEET have led to the mushrooming of coaching institutions in India's education landscape.
But a close analysis by The Quint of the centre and city-wise NEET results data released by the National Testing Agency on 20 July confirms one thing— the concentration of top scorers in these coaching hubs.
*(Note: This calculation is based of the top 50 centres with highest percentage of candidates scoring above 650.)
As many as 12.8 percent (3,960) students belong to cities with a major coaching centre ecosystem like Sikar, Kota, Kottayam and Namakkal. The Quint breaks down the data and speaks to experts to understand if this is a problem.
In 2024, nearly 23.34 lakh candidates took the NEET exam. They were competing for 1,09,333 medical seats.
The main fight, however, is for the 55,225 seats in government medical colleges. Usually, a score above 600 was good enough to land a seat in a government medical college till 2023.
IIT Madras had attributed this increase to reduction in syllabus in its report submitted to the NTA.
Data shows that over 100 out of the 4,750 exam centres had more than three times (10.8 percent) the share of high-scoring candidates (above 600) than the national average (3.5 percent).
With this context, let's individually look at how coaching hubs like Sikar, Kota, Kottayam and Namakkal performed.
(Note: The Quint has used 650 and above as a score which gives a student high probability of securing admission in government college this time.)
1. Sikar
Rajasthan's Sikar is fast-emerging as a NEET hub and is now being referred to as Rajasthan's 'mini-Kota'. In 2024, 27,216 students appeared for the NEET exam across 49 centres.
Of the 482 top scorers in Rajasthan (who scored more than 700 marks), 149 (Nearly 31 percent) of them are from Sikar. *Eight of the top 10 centres nationally are from here.
(*Note: This is calculation is based on the top 50 centres with highest percentage of candidates scoring above 650)
Nearly 6.6 percent (2,037) of the total number of students who scored above 650 out of 720 marks are from Sikar.
While nationally, the chance of a student securing a government seat is 1.3 percent, in Sikar, the chance is at 7.48 percent.
The number of 600+ students stand at 4,100 (or 15 percent) of the total 27,216 students.
Lastly, 30 out of 49 centres in Sikar have had a better success rate and high proportion of students who ranked in the top percentiles as compared to the city's average of 7.48 percent.
2. Kota
Kota is home to a Rs 6,000-crore coaching industry and over two lakh students move here annually to prepare for NEET and JEE.
Out of the total number of students who scored above 700 in Rajasthan, 15.35 percent (74) are from Kota.
While nationally, the chance of a student securing a government seat is 1.3 percent, in Kota, the chance is at 3.9 percent. Over 1,000 students scored above 650 marks, and 2,599 students scored 600+.
In 2023, Kota had 13 people in the top-1,000 rank, and in 2024 the number rose up to 35 — a growth of nearly 169 percent. Similarly, there has been an increase in the top-500 rank from 4 in 2023 to 14 in 2024— a 250 percent growth.
Out of the 566 candidates who appeared in the Kautilya Senior Secondary School, one student secured a perfect 720, and a total of 35 scored more than 650.
3. Kottayam
According to data, Kottayam in Kerala has emerged as the third-best performing city in NEET this year.
Of India's top 100 top-scoring centres, 31 are from Kottayam. Nearly 4.4 percent of the total number of students in Kottayam secured above 650 marks.
The city, which had only 14 rank holders in the top 1,000, now has 25 aspirants.
Out of the total number of students who appeared in three centres— Vidyananda Vidyabhavan, Junior Baselios English Medium School, and Chinmaya Vidyalaya— 8.2 percent, 11 percent and 10.4 percent scored 600+ respectively.
Out of the 183 students in Junior Baselios, 9.28 percent of students scored above 650 marks.
4. Namakkal
For years, Namakkal in Tamil Nadu used to be the district that produced the state toppers in the board exams. Today, it boasts around 15 coaching centres, Frontline Magazine reported.
Out of the 6,180 students who appeared across 11 exam centres in Namakkal, 5.06 percent (313) students scored 650+.
12.68 percent (784) students secure more than 600 out of 720 marks.
Out of the 129 students who scored 700+ in Tamil Nadu, nearly 25 percent are from Namakkal.
The success rate of students who scored above 650+ in The Spectrum Academy exam centre was two percentage points (7.46 percent) above the town's average.
(Note: Merely looking at 2024 data without a state-wise, city-wise, and centre wise comparison with the previous years would not help in pointing out anomalies or massive differences.)
This analysis is not to say that only students belonging to these coaching hubs made it to the top-scorer list. However, it is important to know the large difference in terms of performance between coaching hub and other cities.
The on-going NEET controversy marred by allegations of paper leak and malpractices has not only sparked a debate over India's medical education, but also raised doubt regarding the centralisation of examinations for admissions into higher education programmes.
Experts The Quint spoke to said that the growth of "coaching culture" is a direct effect of centralisation of exams in India. Once seen as a supplementary resource, the industry has grown into a huge sector.
Speaking with The Quint, Furqan Qamar, an educationist and former advisor (Education) in the erstwhile Planning Commission of India, said:
Stating that the problem lies in the education system, former Union Health Secretary Sujatha Rao said that with over dependence of coaching, the reliance on "school systems is coming down, and budgets for education comes down, and coaching institutions going up."
Both Qamar and Rao agreed that coaching institutes were a "money-making business."
The 2021 Justice AK Rajan Committee report, which studied the impact of NEET in Tamil Nadu, too talks about how coaching centres have further helped affluent students to clear the medical entrance test, leaving aspirants from underprivileged sections behind.
Speaking to The Quint. Prof. L Jawahar Nesan, former Vice-Chancellor of JSS Technical University and key member of the report said:
With mushrooming tuition classes and mounting fee structure, affordability has become a serious challenge for many.
"This has discouraged vulnerable communities, like socially depressed and backward, educationally and geographically backward," Nesan added.
As soon as the NTA released the NEET results, several news reports alleged that a student from Gujarat, who failed her Class 12 exams, scored 705 out of 720 in the NEET-UG exam.
The experts told The Quint that an over-reliance on scores obtained in entrance examinations by coaching centres make students “marks scoring machines”, which discourages learning.
The current NEET crisis is symptomatic of a failed state that is "unable to ensure high-quality school education," experts concluded.
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