CHENNAI: Educationists belonging to the State Platform for Common School System (SPCSS) have petitioned President Pranab Mukherji demanding his approval to the Tamil Nadu acts exempting its students from Neet. To exempt the students of the state, the state assembly passed two bills — Tamil Nadu Admission to MBBS and BDS Courses Act 2017 and the Tamil Nadu Admission to Post Graduate Courses in Medicine and Dentistry Act 2017 — which are awaiting the President’s assent for last two months.
In the petition, SPCSS general secretary Prince Gajendrababu said, “The purpose of Neet is to ensure admission in UG medical courses purely on merit. This purpose is well served by the Tamil Nadu legislation as it ensures merit and transparency in the matter of admission to UG medical courses. The objectives and reasons for the Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill 2016, which gave one-year exemption for state quota seats, said that the syllabi for state level exams are different from AIPMT (All India Pre-Medical Test), which is going to be the basis for the Neet-2 exam,” he said in the petition.
“The difficulty still continues, as about 98% of students in Tamil Nadu study in state syllabus in class 12. The state board students are handicapped in facing Neet which is based on CBSE syllabus. Due to this, the reason for granting exemption from Neet for the year 2016-17 still remains valid for extending it,” he pointed out. In his petition, he also elaborately quoted the Madras High Court’s judgement which upheld the abolishing of the entrance exams in the state.
Expressing the fear that Neet coaching may replace the school education the petition said, “The Neet exam can make the students into scoring machines without any exposure to societal concerns. In the name of merit, the disadvantaged section of the society, people living in difficult circumstances like difficult terrain, social oppression and socio-economic constraints will be kept out of the race for UG medical courses and the affluent will completely occupy the medical colleges,” it said.
The petition argued that Tamil Nadu cannot be compared with other states as it hosts the largest number of medical colleges (24 medical colleges) among the states in India. The fee in these colleges is Rs 20,000. “Such subsidy is to help the students belonging to the socially and educationally backward classes to pursue their medical studies.” It also said that the state government has taken all steps to ensure fair and transparent admission to medical courses. “Thus, the state of Tamil Nadu remains a distinct class among the other States and is entitled for a differential treatment under the Doctrine of Reasonable Classification. Therefore the State of Tamil Nadu is justified in seeking an exemption from Neet,” the petition read.
