Of the 3,534 students admitted to various government medical colleges in the current academic year in Tamil Nadu, 1,224 (34 per cent) belonged to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). The remaining two-thirds (66 per cent) came from schools under the Tamil Nadu state board, registering a sharp decline from the previous year, when around 99 per cent students from the state board were given admission in medical colleges.
This dip is attributed to the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET), a centralised common medical entrance exam, which was conducted for the first time in Tamil Nadu along with