Jeevithkumar, a native of Theni district in Tamil Nadu, has drawn national attention after setting a national record in NEET 2020 as his efforts have finally been paid off, his family has got moments to rejoice, and his village has got a hope that it would have the first doctor. When his name was headlined, Jeevithkumar has been on the rain of appreciations amid being filled with tears as it was his second attempt for the national exam and he has nailed it. 

According to reports, Jeevithkumar has scored 664 out of 720 marks, and through his marks, he is now on the top of the list of students from government schools across the country with the highest marks in this year's edition of NEET. He is the eldest son of Narayanamoorthi, who herds his cattle for survival and his achievement was made possible through the collective help of his family and his teachers. 

A native of Vadipatti in Theni, Jeevithkumar had studied in the model government school, staying in the hostel in Periyakulam, Theni. He had completed Class 12 in 2019 and scored 548 out of 600 marks in the board exams. He was one of the top-scorers in the Theni district and with the aim of becoming a doctor, he attempted the NEET exam in 2019. However, he was ended up scoring 193 marks in his first attempt. 

With the failure, he prepared to make his second attempt during which some of his school teachers from the school came to his help and pillared his hope of clearing the exam. The teachers had enrolled Jeevithkumar in a private coaching center in Namakkal district to help him to get trained to clear the national exam. The teachers had provided him the financial assistance by taking care of his tuition expenses. 

On the training front, Jeevithkumar had prepared for the NEET exam by studying for 12-13 hours a day and appeared for the second attempt and when results were published, Jeevithkumar had shown that all of his efforts and help hadn't gone in vain as he had scored 664 out of 720 marks and become the highest scorer in India among the students from government schools. 

All of his efforts were paid off and now he has been in the spotlight for his achievement. But, there is one thing that we must learn from his achievement as though Jeevithkumar was first in the list of highest scorers in India among the students from government schools, he had secured 1823rd rank in India at the national level. Though he is first among the students from government schools, he has got 1822 students ahead of him at the national level who got their education at the private institutions. 

In what has become a sad reality, it has shown that the government school students, who aim to become a doctor, must brace up more challenges in pursuing their medical studies and to get an equal and proper training and education to get placed at least in the list of top hundred ranks at the national level. It's less likely that all the government school students would get help and support from their teachers like how Jeevithkumar got. 

In the absence of such equal and economic training facilities for the NEET exam and with the financial stress that make the private tuitions unaffordable, the government school students will be pushed to either drop their ambition of becoming a doctor or get settled in some of the underrated colleges to pursue the medical studies based on their marks. 

The state of Tamil Nadu has been witnessing suicides as there are about five students who have committeed suicides in Tamil Nadu ahead of the NEET 2020 due to the financial stress and deep pressure to chase their dreams. Madras High Court has been castigating and raising concerns on how the poor and marginalized students can afford NEET coaching. In November 2019, the Madras High Court said that it has almost become impossible to get a medical seat without going to private NEET coaching centers. 

The Madras High Court bench comprised of Justices Kirubakaran and Velmurugan said that only those who got money can clear NEET and raised a question of how can the poor afford to get such coaching and strongly observed that the medical college doors would never open for the poor. 

Sadly, it has become a grim reality that there are millions of aspirants with the dream of becoming a doctor without having an equal standard and opportunity to pursue and clear the NEET. While we celebrate and appreciate the national rank holders, we must know that the question of how can the poor afford NEET coaching is still unanswered.