State government hoping against hope to get exemption

With NEET for UG courses slated for May 7, there has been no response from the Centre on Bills passed by the Assembly

With barely a week to go for the national eligibility-cum-entrance test (NEET) for admission to undergraduate courses in medicine and dentistry (MBBS and BDS courses), the State government is hoping against hope that Presidential assent will be granted to two Bills, seeking exemption from the NEET for students of the State.

So far, there has been no word from the Centre on the fate of the two Bills meant to bypass the NEET for admission to postgraduate courses in medicine and dentistry. One of them, pertains to admission to undergraduate medical and dental courses, while the other is on admission to PG courses. PG service candidates have gone to court contesting the present form of the NEET test which doesn’t grant them concessions for serving in the State health service.

It appears that the State government is reconciling itself to the scenario of not receiving any formal communication from the Centre in the next week, as the NEET for UG courses is slated for May 7.

In that event, the NEET will become a fait accompli and admission to MBBS and BDS courses will have to be done only on the basis of performance of students in the proposed test.

What is at stake is the admission to 3,643 MBBS seats and 1,130 BDS seats, totalling 4,773 seats in government and private colleges.

In the case of Tamil Nadu, there are 22 government medical colleges, including the one in Pudukottai, which will start functioning this academic year.

These institutions provide 2,445 MBBS seats in the State quota after surrendering 15 per cent of seats to the All India quota. The dental college in Chennai offers 85 BDS seats. Besides, 15 private medical colleges, minority and non-minority, and 19 private dental colleges every year surrender 1,198 MBBS seats and 1,045 BDS seats respectively to the State government.

‘Unfair advantage’

One of the objections to NEET is that the test will be based on the syllabus being followed by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for higher secondary, giving an unfair advantage to CBSE students. Compared to nearly four lakh Plus-Two students of the State Board stream with biology as one of their subjects, there are hardly 4,000 such students under the CBSE stream in the State.

The stand of the State government has been that most of its higher secondary students are from rural areas and economically weaker sections of society.

There will be no “level playing field” in the event of adoption of the NEET as the basis for admission. Besides, the government feels that it must have “greater say” in the methodology of selection of candidates for UG courses, after having invested “heavily” in its medical and dental institutions.

At the same time, the State government’s policy makers are not oblivious to the need for undertaking “radical reforms” in school education but this will take some more years, a senior official said.

Even though the NEET has become mandatory as a sequel to the Supreme Court’s order of 2016, what has not gone unnoticed among those in the State government is the July 2013 judgment of the same court which held that NEET had “the effect of depriving States, State-run universities and all medical colleges and institutions, including those enjoying constitutional protection, of their right to admit students to MBBS, BDS and PG courses as per their own procedures, beliefs and dispensations.”