Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said in the Assembly on Tuesday that NEET was discriminatory towards poor students and termed the examination as “knowledge untouchability of the 21st Century.”
“The fact that those who cannot pay for coaching cannot enter medical education and the fact that only those who can pay for coaching for two to three years alone could enter is in itself knowledge untouchability of the 21st Century,” he said.
He also questioned as to how students could spend on his/her coaching for two to three years for qualifying in NEET. “How can students from the poor and downtrodden background manage? That is the question we keep repeating,” he said.
“Like how restricting entry to dark people is apartheid, not preparing the question paper from the syllabus of the State Board of School Education is discrimination too,” Mr. Stalin contended.
The Bill was adopted in September only after a committee headed by the Chief Secretary made recommendations based on the Justice A.K. Rajan Committee’s report, he said. Opinions of about a lakh people were considered before the report was submitted to the government, he said.
“NEET did not fall from the skies. It is a test with many defects that sidelines the poor and the downtrodden, and so, we are opposing it. The question is whether we need NEET, which has sent many students to the graveyard and many to prisons,” Mr. Stalin said.
Before moving the Bill in the House, Mr. Stalin said he hoped that the Governor would respect the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu and would forward the Bill adopted in the House to the President without any delay.
Recalling former Chief Minister C.N. Annadurai’s observations in the House on March 30, 1967, against the post of Governorship, Mr. Stalin said: “I really hope that the Governor does not create such a situation.”
Contending that it was the “Constitutional duty of the Governor” to forward the Bill adopted by the House on September 30, 2021 for Presidential assent, he said: “I hope that the Governor will do that duty properly, at least henceforth. That is the duty of the Governor towards the Legislature.”
Contending that NEET was not a system established by the Constitution and not made a part of the Constitution, Mr. Stalin pointed out that the Medical Council of India (MCI) mandated the creation of NEET and pointed out that the examination was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on July 18, 2013.
The real beneficiaries
Charging that NEET was only benefitting private training institutes, Mr. Stalin said several lakhs were being collected from students for these exams. “NEET is an impediment to the education of economically weaker students. It becomes a barrier between them and their dreams of becoming doctors,” he said.
Listing various instances of irregularities and impersonation and deaths over NEET in various parts of the country, Mr. Stalin said “NEET is not a test; it is an altar where our beloved students have died, including Anitha from Ariyalur.”
