The bill to exempt Tamil Nadu students from taking admission to medical colleges on basis of the national-level competitive exam National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET) has been sent to the Centre for Presidential assent, Chief Minister M K Stalin said on Wednesday.
After a tussle between the state government and the governor over the bill, the CM now informed the Tamil Nadu Assembly that the anti-NEET bill has been sent to the union government by Governor R N Ravi. Recently, Stalin had said, state was not asking for the governor’s approval for the Bill but to send it for presidential assent like a “postman.”
On Wednesday, Stalin told the state Assembly that he has been informed by the Governor’s secretary that the bill has been sent to the Union Home Ministry to enable Presidential assent for the same.
“As part of our struggle for NEET exemption, in the next step, we should jointly take all efforts to insist the Centre for Presidential assent for the bill,” he said. The Assembly had in February adopted the ruling DMK-piloted anti-NEET bill for the second time, after the Governor had returned the one resolved last year.
Tamil Nadu government wants an exemption from NEET as it states that NET is not the right way to assess students for medical entrance. Based on AK Rajan committee report, the committee constituted by state government to assess the suitability of NEET, fewer kids from rural and urban poor families made it to medical colleges after introduction of NEET. n the government lot, while the rural students maintained an average of 61.45% in the pre-NEET and fell down to 49.91% in 2020-21 in the post-NEET, the urban students who fared 38.55% average in the pre-NEET rose to 50.09% in 2020-21 in the post-NEET, the report revealed.
Further, the report states that students who have been enrolled in MBBS courses via NEET have performed poorly than those enrolled based on class 12 marks. “In the first year of the course, there is no difference between those who got admitted based plus two marks and those based on NEET. However, from the second year, students who got admitted based on NEET marks perform poorer than those who entered before 2017 based on their plus two marks” stated Dr Nesan, an educationist, former Vice-Chancellor of JSS Science and Technology University Mysore.
If the Bill is passed by centre then the common entrance test would not be the only way to get admission to medial colleges. Students have earlier claimed that having only one exam a year and fewer colleges makes cracking NEET tougher than engineering entrance JEE Main. Responding to the demands, government has lifted the upper age limit to take NEET, in an attempt to offer students multiple chances at the exam.
— With inputs from PTI
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