Tamil Nadu parties again demand scrapping of NEET

Expressing their grief over the suicide of two girls who had scored low marks in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), leaders of various political parties in Tamil Nadu on Thursday reiterated their demand for scrapping the entrance test.

Two teenage girls from the state committed suicide after scoring low marks in the NEET exam, though they had earlier scored good marks in their school Board exams.

In a statement issued here, former Union Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said there are no longer any doubts that NEET is destroying the dreams of village youth of studying medicine.

He said the Central government should get the President's assent to the bill passed by the Tamil Nadu assembly for exempting the state from the NEET.

The DMK President M.K. Stalin said that in a federal set-up, the Central government should respect the sentiments of the states.

Stalin also said the party will raise the issue strongly in Parliament.

The political leaders said the NEET question paper is based on the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) syllabus, which is found to be difficult by students of the state board.

According to them, only students who can afford to join private coaching classes were able to clear the exams, while poor students from rural areas were at a disadvantage in tackling the NEET.

Prior to NEET, medical college admissions in Tamil Nadu were based on the marks scored by the students in the school Board exams.

In the 2019 NEET exams, the pass percentage of Tamil Nadu students increased by 9.01 per cent to 48.57 per cent.

A total of 59,785 students of the state have passed out successfully in the 2019 NEET exams, out of 123,078 students who appeared for the test. IANS