Chennai: Following the deaths of medical aspirants in Tamil Nadu, the state health department has decided to reach out to the students who had taken up National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), to provide counselling. The state government would be providing counselling through the state health helpline 104 for those residing in Chennai and through the district-level war rooms for other students.
According to a Hindu report, a team would reach out to the students and talk to them for a few minutes after obtaining their approval.
Quoting the Health Minister Ma Subramanian, the report said that they had already obtained the list of the students along with their contact details from the National Testing Agency. Pointing out that the details of students would be sent to their respective districts, the minister said that 333 psychiatrists working in government medical college hospitals and district headquarters hospitals would reach out to the students through telephone, according to the report.
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Students who had appeared for NEET more than once, would be given first priority, said the minister as per the report.
Explaining that the exercise would provide an opportunity to understand the mental state of the students, the minister said that the counselling would help them to reduce the fear of examinations among the students, according to the report.
According to the report, the minister said that a 12-point guideline was created to implement it effectively and the same was shared with psychiatrists and counsellors. “The aim is to cover at least 1.12 lakh students in another 10 to 15 days,” he added, as per the report.