ERODE: In comments that could create confusion among state board students who are mentally prepared to face Neet, School Education Minister K A Sengottaiyan on Sunday said the Tamil Nadu Government’s policy was to get an exemption from the national-level entrance test for admission into medical courses.
Sengottaiyan’s comments come at a time when students are preparing themselves for the Neet test scheduled in the first week of May and the Tamil Nadu Government is launching coaching centres across the state to enable state board students to crack such competitive examinations.
“The state government’s policy is to get exemption from Neet. Continuous efforts are being made in this regard. We have already made an appeal to the Union government to exempt students of Tamil Nadu from Neet,” the Minister said.
Sengottaiyan said till the exemption is obtained, the state government has made arrangements to provide free training to students to face the exams, which is compulsory to qualify for admission to MBBS/BDS courses. It was decided to start 412 centres to train around 78,000 students to face Neet, he added.
Sengottaiyan further said from these 78,000 the best 2,000 students would be selected and provided ‘special’ coaching for Neet. Educationists said the minister's comments would certainly confuse and mislead the students.
Jayaprakash A Gandhi, career analyst and educationist, said, “Even the state board plus 2 students are now mentally prepared to go through Neet. Any move to change the system at the last minute will definitely lead to panic in minds of students and it will mislead them.”
“The state government itself is conducting coaching classes for the government school students. So, this kind of statement will create unnecessary confusion among the students,” he added.
“The Central Government has announced that the medical admissions will be based only on Neet marks. While continuing our efforts to get the exemption for the state quota medical seats, the Tamil Nadu government should categorically tell students that they should be prepared for Neet to avoid any confusion,” Dr G.R. Ravindranath, general secretary, Doctors’ Association for Social Equality, said. He also said the central government should give separate reservation for the students from government and government-aided schools.
Some educationists argued that the state government is well within its right to persist with the demand for Neet exemption. “Though students are preparing for Neet, they cannot score good marks either in Neet or in board exams as they are preparing for the both. Further, they have to compete with the older students in Neet. So in the interest of the students, the Central Government should send both the bills from Tamil Nadu immediately to the President for getting the assent. If needed he can get clarification from the legal experts or Supreme Court,” one educationist said.
“The central government has given exemption to institutions like JIPMER and AIIMS from Neet against the Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Act. 2016. If they can exempt the central government institutions then why not to the seats under the Tamil Nadu state quota?” they asked.
