Chennai: The confusion surrounding National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Neet), which put thousands of Tamil Nadu state board students under considerable stress and subsequently resulted in death of Anitha, one of the petitioners in the case against Neet in Supreme Court and a top-ranked student from Dalit community in Ariyalur district, was one of the defining moments in education in 2017.
The death resulted in strong outpour of emotions and spontaneous protests against both the state and central governments. Confirming the worst fears of educationists and parents, only five students from government schools got MBBS seats in the medical admission which was conducted on the basis of Neet marks. CBSE students (1,220) and old students from state board (1,004) got the major chunk of the total MBBS seats (3,534) this year.
It forced the state government to start Neet coaching centres for government school students. The confusion also forced the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions Committee to conduct engineering counselling ahead of medical counselling as it was delayed by more than two months due to litigations. The move has left over 300 seats in Anna University vacant as the top rankers left the engineering courses to join MBBS.
Learning from this situation, the higher education department has announced that the engineering admission in 2018-19 will be conducted through online counselling in which vacancies arising after engineering counselling can be filled. At present, there is no second and third phase counselling conducted for B.E., B.Tech courses.
Neet challenge also forced the state government to initiate the revision of 12-year-old higher secondary syllabus in Tamil Nadu. The state government has announced a three-year plan to revamp the entire syllabus and for classes 1 to 12 starting from 2018-19. It is currently working to overhaul the evaluation pattern in school exams to prepare students for the competitive exams like Neet, Jee. It has released the draft new syllabus for public scrutiny on November 20.
The past year was an eventful one for school education in the state. Senior AIADMK leader K.A. Sengottaiyan who after taken charge as school education minister, handpicked T. Udhayachandran as the secretary to the department to bring several changes in school education.
They announced a slew of measures to reform school education including abolishing of state ranks in board exams. Soon, due to differences, the minister brought in the senior IAS officer and principal secretary Pradeep Yadav to head the department. Udhayachandran is now overseeing syllabus revision work as the secretary of school education.
In view of the corruption allegations in the appointment of Vice-Chancellors, then Governor C.H..Vidyasagar Rao has personally interviewed shortlisted V-C candidates for Madurai Kamaraj University, Madras University and Anna University. In a rare move, the chancellor rejected all three shortlisted candidates for the V-C post of Anna University as he was not convinced with their qualifications for the top post of the premier technical university.
Professor P. Duraisamy, a seasoned academician was appointed as the Vice-Chancellor of University of Madras on May 27. The appointment of P.P. Chelladurai as Vice-Chancellor of Madurai Kamaraj University has created controversy as a criminal case was pending against him. The inordinate delay in appointing vice-chancellors to top universities has prompted the state government to bring an ordinance to fix a four months' time limit for V-C's selection.
Following the examination scam in the Institute of Distance Education, Madras University Vice-Chancellor Duraisamy has cancelled the exam centres outside the state. The university has decided to revamp the IDE by introducing e-learning. Following the resignation of former Chief Justice of India Justice R.M. Lodha, the high profile V-C search committee was dissolved and new committee headed by Supreme Court former judge Justice V.S.Sirpurkar was formed.
At the end of the year, Teachers Recruitment Board has unearthed a major scam in which around 200 candidates qualified for certificate verification with the fake marks in written examination. Each candidate has allegedly paid Rs 25-30 lakh to to the touts. Deccan Chronicle brought the scam to light and the Central Crime Branch launched an enquiry after booking cases against 196 candidates for involving in the malpractice.
