The Tamil Nadu government on Monday (Sept 13) passed a bill to scrap the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) for the state’s medical aspirants. Under the Bill, instead of the exam, these students will be provided admissions into undergraduate medical courses based on Class 12 marks.
However, this bill was passed on the basis of data provided by a nine-member panel appointed by the state government which was asked to assess the impact of NEET on students.
As per report by a national media (Indian Express), the panel revealed that the proportion of students from rural areas, economically weaker backgrounds, Tamil-medium schools, and state-board affiliated schools in Tamil Nadu’s medical colleges has decreased significantly in the past few years.
However, as per the data by the panel, this trend was observed after NEET was introduced in 2017-18. The panel found that the proportion of rural students fell from an average of 61.45 percent (pre-NEET) to 50.81 percent (post-NEET).
As per the committee’s report, the share of English-medium school students in medical colleges has increased from 85.12 percent to 98.01 percent since NEET. Meanwhile, Tamil-medium school students now constitute just 1.99 percent down from 14.88 percent four years ago.
Same was observed to be the case with students from weaker economic backgrounds, who were given less preference in NEET as compared to students with better financial backgrounds. The panel also found that NEET favoured students from CBSE-affiliated schools more than state board students, because NEET is mainly based on CBSE curriculum.
It is pertinent to mention that following a supreme-court order, NEET is the only single-window examination for entry into any medical school in the country.
However, after several cases of suicides were reported from Chennai after the conduct of NEET Exam, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, MK Stalin introduced this bill at the Assembly seeking exemption for Tamil Nadu students from the centralised medical entrance exam.
(Video Credits: Editor - Surendra Pradhan, Producer - Diptyranjita Patra)