NEET Controversy in Tamil Nadu

This is again the NEET season in Tamil Nadu. From politicians to clueless actors everyone in Tamil Nadu has to share their 2 cents about NEET and how the students from Village background are victimised or even how it was deliberately designed to ensure no one from Tamil Nadu gets admitted into Medical colleges. This article tries to give the other side which lays bare for everyone to see but no one notices or talks about it.

Lots of talk going around the merits (less) and de-merits(mostly) of NEET in TN. Here is a background of the NEET and the associated tall claims our political parties are making. Might be a long read, but I hope it gives you some perspective.

1. NCERT (National Council of Education Research & Training) is a Govt organization that advises Central & State Governments on school education. They publish model text books for each standard which can be used by anyone to model their education patterns by paying a royalty. CBSE, instead of creating their own pattern, just took NCERT model syllabus as it is. Most states have created their state syllabus around NCERT model. Some states like Andhra improved on it; some states like TN have watered it down for whatever reason. This is the first issue.
2. NATIONAL ELIGIBILITY CUM ENTRANCE TEST (NEET) is conducted by National Testing Agency and this score should be used for admission to UG courses in all Medical Colleges/Institutes in India. This guarantees all students are tested uniformly all over India.
3. Claim: Students from villages adversely affected.
   Truth: Here is the stats from Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. ‘Among major states, Tamil Nadu continues to be the most urbanized state with 48.4 percent of the population living in urban areas followed now by Kerala (47.7 per cent) upstaging Maharashtra (45.2 percent).’

http://mohua.gov.in/cms/level-of-urbanisation.php

With base ready let us come to the items our politicians (& useless cinema actors) accuse about NEET. There are 3 major items as below.

• NEET will invariably affect the students from village
• NEET is based on CBSE patterns giving advantage to those from CBSE schools
• NEET is difficult and designed to ensure no one from TN gets admitted into Medical Colleges.

As we discussed above, NEET is based on NCERT pattern which is the suggested & modern pattern for all over India. CBSE just took it as it is and many states have improved over it. When 28 states and 7 UT’s dont find any issue but if only we find it difficult then it means the standard of education in TN is spoiled than anyone else in the country.

About the village students, as we see from the Central Govt census among the states TN has the most urbanized population. There are many states whose population is predominantly in villages and tribes. These states dont see any issue with the pattern. Which means that education is not spread uniformly across the state and also the quality of education is bad ONLY in Tamil Nadu. Education is the responsibility of the state — so whose mistake is it that they didn’t give proper education to its students?? NEET wasn’t introduced out of the blue, it was announced well in advance giving ample time for the states to model their education based on national standard. Again, whose mistake was it not to improve the standard to the recommended level?

Keeping it short, I’ll draw the real reasons why TN politicians are against NEET. It stems from the reason that many of our politicians have medical colleges and that understanding will make the picture clear.

1. NEET will be the only entrance examination for all Medical admissions. This makes it impossible for the colleges to run their own entrance exam and admit anyone who pays money.
2. There will be a minimum mark specified. Anyone who scored below this minimum mark in NEET shall not be admitted. This rule ensures only qualified people are admitted to the course. Again this rule makes it impossible for the colleges run by politicians to admit anyone who doesn’t even have a basic skill set. Mind you, once a student is admitted to the course he’ll have the same syllabus, evaluation metrics like everyone else in his class. When a student who couldnt even score the minimum marks is admitted, he will find it very hard to cope up with the course — he/she may fail or indulge in malpractices to advance into next semester/year. In all practical sense that seat is wasted — had it been given to someone who at least has basic skill it’ll benefit the student and society (at least there is a chance).
3. The syllabus for entrance exam is be based on NCERT — 11th and 12th. Most politicians too run schools and invariably they are CBSE. Students studying in their schools aren’t affected, but the crocodile tears was only for the ‘village students’ or the ones following state syllabus. As we knew NCERT syllabus is only a model syllabus and CBSE has adopted it. It is the duty of the states to design their syllabus at par or better than NCERT. This argument by the politicians about syllabus is to hide their inept handling of education and spoiling it in the name of samacheer kalvi.

Not going any further the opposition against NEET in TN is only political and vested interests. Plight of village students and any other given reason is just an invented lies to hide the hidden agenda.

If at all any politician seriously believes in the reasons they give (also for Hindi), can they list out the following?

1. Educational institutions they or their family owns or invested in
2. If they own school — what is the syllabus they follow at the school and what languages are taught there
3. If they run Colleges, have they earmarked any seats for students from government schools in villages or the ones who graduated thru Samacheer Kalvi (or how many they have admitted from above background)
4. If they run Colleges, can they publish top 5 and bottom 5 marks from XII of the students they admitted (not naming the students) and the average marks in XII board exams
5. Publish the educational institutes, Xth and XIIth mark sheets of their children and grand children to show they have put money where their mouth is.
6. Conduct an open election in all schools if they want to switch over to NCERT (CBSE syllabus) and if Hindi should be taught in TN schools. Let the parents and students vote. To ensure the Government school students and parents take informed decision, let the election first happen at Private schools — publish their results in news papers and then conduct the election in Govt schools.

I am sure, அடிச்சு கேட்டாலும் இதுக்கு பதில் சொல்ல மாட்டாங்க. என்ன காரணம்னா:

1. தமிழக கல்வி தரத்தை எப்படி கெடுத்து வைச்சிருக்காங்கனு அவங்களுக்காய் நல்லா தெரியும். இல்லைனா அவங்க நடத்துற ஸ்கூல்’ல சமசீர் கல்வியை வைச்சிருப்பாங்க இல்ல குடும்பத்துல இருக்கறவங்கள அந்த மீடியத்துல படிக்க வைச்சிருப்பாங்க
2. அவங்க பிசினஸ் பாதிக்கபடுத்தேங்கற கவலைதான் அவங்களுக்கு. முதல்ல மாதிரி மெடிக்கல் சீட்டை யாருக்கு வேண்டுமானாலும் விக்க முடியலையேங்கற ஆத்திரம்

Thats Tamil Nadu politics for you — let unsuspecting people suffer for your incompetency & irresponsibility, but blame everyone in the world for that self inflicted misery.