Faced with the prospects of the Supreme Court refusing its petition for exemption from the National Eligibility and Entrance Test for admission to the undergraduate courses in medicine and dental sciences, the Tamil Nadu Government will soon set up 450 centres across the State to train the students to prepare for the test. This was announced by School Education Minister KA Sengottaiyan.
The Tamil Nadu Government as well as the regional parties like the DMK, PMK and the VCK were against the concept of NEET from day one. Having failed to get any relief from the Centre for its pleas to exempt the State from NEET, the State Government had launched multi-pronged measures to overcome the NEET obstacle.
The contention of the State government was that the NEET has been conceived to favour students in the CBSE stream while the students from Tamil Nadu State Board stream would find it quite tough to clear the all-India qualifying test.
Since the Centre did not heed to the request by the State for exemption from NEET, the AIADMK government enacted a legislation reserving 85 per cent of the total MBBS and BDS seats in Tamil Nadu for students from the State Board stream. But the Madras High Court quashed the legislation and a division bench upheld the order by a single bench declaring the legislation null and void.
A delegation of ministers from the State called on Prime Minister and union ministers of home, health and human resource development with the plea for eemption from NEET. The State also moved the Supreme Court challenging the Madras High Court order quashing the legislation,
“Why we in Tamil Nadu should part with the seats in our State for students from other StatesIJ,” this was the reply by a senior political commentator when asked about the intransigent stance of political parties in the State with regard to NEET. But educationists, medical teachers and even students belonging to the State Board stream were for the NEET.
Dr K Krishnasamy, founder, Puthiya Tamilakam, a regional party,said NEET is the best option available for Tamil Nadu students. Himself a medical doctor-turned-politician, Dr Krishnasamy pointed out that Tamil Nadu was the only State opposing the NEET and the real reasons for the opposition were difficult for him to comprehend.
The announcement by minister Sengottaiyan is proof that Tamil Nadu is joining the national mainstream in the issue related to admission in medical colleges. Each district in the State would have 10 to 15 NEET training centres over the next one year for the students to get ready to face the all India competition.
“These 450 NEET training centres are for the students from economically weaker sections who aspire to become doctors,” said the Minister.
Sengottaiyan also said that the syllabus of the State Board stream would be upgraded to that of the CBSE syllabus so that students in the State too would get the same quality education being imparted to students of CBSE stream.