DMK MPs held a protest in Parliament premises on the first day of the monsoon session demanding that the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for medical students be scrapped. They later raised the issue in both Houses.
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In Lok Sabha, former Union minister T.R. Baalu said students were committing suicide in Tamil Nadu because of NEET. Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Mr Baalu said it was unfair to expect students who had cleared the 12th standard exams from the State education board to have only one month to prepare for NEET which is based on the Central Board of Secondary Education syllabus.
“Bright students, our future doctors and medical professionals are being discriminated against just because the Central government wants to implement NEET,” he said.
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In Rajya Sabha, P. Wilson also flagged the recent suicide of three aspirants between the ages of 19 and 21 in Madurai, Dharmapuri and Namakkal districts.
“Till date, 13 young students from Tamil Nadu have sadly taken their lives fearing that they will not succeed in NEET,” he said. NEET not only gives students studying in CBSE schools an upper hand, but also greatly disadvantages the economically weaker sections of the society, Mr Wilson said.
The students who have passed the state board need extra coaching at considerable cost. “Education is a matter placed in Entry 25 of List III of Schedule 7 of the Constitution, meaning thereby the State Legislature also has legislative competence over the field and by extension, the Executive of that State. By unilaterally assimilating to the Central Government the power to conduct such entrance examinations, the basic feature of the Constitution, particularly the federal structure is violated,” Mr. Wilson said.