The Tamil Nadu government has introduced a new bill which would exempt the state’s medical aspirants from NEET. The bill for medical education would provide admission to undergraduate medical courses based on qualifying examinations. The Tamil Nadu Admission to Undergraduate Medical Degree Courses Act 2021 was introduced by CM MK Stalin.
What will this bill provide?
“Through this Bill, seat allotment for medical undergraduates seats in government and private institutions shall be done based on Class 12 marks,” Stalin said. This was the way TN had carried out medical admissions before NEET came into existence. “Also, government school students will get 7.5% preference in seat allotment,” he added.
“The Bill has been tabled to use Class 12 public exams marks for undergraduate medical seat allotment after considering the recommendations by the high-level committee and to safeguard social justice, equality, to protect the affected children, and to create a strong health infrastructure, especially in the rural areas,” Stalin said.
The inputs were provided by Justice (retired) AK Rajan committee which was appointed to study the impact of NEET on students from economically backward sections of the society. “The justice Rajan commission has proved that NEET is not a neutral examination method. NEET had shattered the dreams of students from poor social and economic backgrounds,” he said.
“The NEET is in favor of those who are economically strong and who can attend coaching classes. Saying that NEET increases the quality of medical education is false. Quality of education is not based on enrolling students,” he added.”The Tamil Nadu Government had decided to uphold social justice, equality and equal opportunity,” the CM said.
“I request MLAs from all parties to help in passing the Bill unanimously,” Stalin added. The Tamil Nadu govt has proposed to offer a reservation of 7.5% seats in medical colleges for students from government schools.
Why scrap NEET and not JEE?
Many students also question why the state government wants to scrap the NEET while it is not against JEE Mains, which is a centralised entrance exam for engineering. The state government claims that the centralised, single-day exam puts pressure on students. Unlike engineering aspirants who want to appear in state and central level exams, for medical aspirants there is only one exam – NEET – for admission to both centre and state level colleges.
Central Government offers quota
To ensure that students from across social and economic backgrounds stand a chance to become doctors, the government has also introduced reservations for EWS and OBC candidates. This is in addition to existing reservations for SC, ST candidates. In addition to 15% reservation offered to SC and 7.5% to ST category students, 27% seats will be reserved for OBC and 10% for EWS category students in medical admissions under All India Quota (AIQ).
