Chennai, Aug 21 (IANS): The number of students who opted for Tamil as the medium to write the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) this year has increased by 16 per cent from the previous year.

The exam is scheduled to be held on September 12.

In the 2020 NEET, 17,101 students had chosen Tamil as the medium to write the test; while in 2021, 19,867 students had opted for the language.

The figures were released by the National Testing Agency that conducts NEET examinations.

"The number of students opting for Tamil in NEET has increased due to the reservation for government school students. The state has announced a quota for them and most of these students prefer to appear in Tamil," Satheesh Balaji, a career consultant told IANS.

However, the overall applications from Tamil Nadu for the test has fallen by 7 per cent.

In 2020, there were 1,21,617 applicants for NEET from the state, while it has fallen to 1,12,889 students in 2021.

In 2019 before the pandemic, the number of NEET applicants from Tamil Nadu was around 1.4 lakh.

Another carrier consultant Mohammed Aneesh told IANS: "Most of the parents are opting for Engineering as the cost is less and getting a job is much easier.

"Another factor is the increase in cut off mark to 580 for getting admissions to government colleges and the third factor is lack of physical classes and tuition classes."

It may be recalled that the opposition AIADMK had locked horns with ruling DMK over its 'poll promise' of scrapping NEET in Tamil Nadu, saying that the DMK made false electoral promises in order to come to power.