May 23 2017 : The Times of India (Chennai)

TN should have asked for all-time exemption from 

NEET: Ex-judge

Chennai: TIMES NEWS NETWORK





Tamil Nadu should have asked for an all-time exemption from National Eligibility cum Entrance Exam (NEET), not a one-time reprieve, said retired judge Haripanthaman on Monday . Addressing a seminar on NEET, he said the state had taken a Uturn on its long-time demand to be excluded from NEET.

“When did the demand become a one-year exemption?
The state should have sought total exemption from the medical entrance exam, and should have asked to continue with its own system of meritbased admissions,“ he said.

The retired Madras high court judge recalled the older system of Common Entrance Test, which was followed until 2006 in the state for admission to medical seats, and added that the whole point of the shift to merit-based counselling in 2007 was because Tamil Nadu which had a large number of medical aspirants would lose out in the older evaluation system.

While commending the recent move by the state to introduce board exams for Class XI, he said a “comprehensive education system“ is what the state should be moving towards, and NEET is not the way to go about it.

“A ranking system is not necessary ,“ he said, attacking NEET's examination pattern which follows a filtration system based on cut-off marks and allows students based on their national ranking to secure seats in private and public medical colleges.

He called for strengthening the school education syllabus, instead of ditching it altogether to bring in an entrance exam. “Legally , it is well within the state's power to decide if it wants to be part of NEET or be exempted from it,“ added Hariparanthaman.