Aspirants must continue to study for NEET: Health min

Aspirants must continue to study for NEET: Health min

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:19.06.2021

Students in Tamil Nadu aspiring to pursue MBBS must continue preparing for NEET even as the state government is working towards getting an exemption, health minister Ma Subramanian said on Friday. He was reacting to a statement by deputy leader of opposition O Panneerselvam, which said the state’s decision to start NEET coaching centres in government schools when they promised an exemption was confusing to students.

Subramanian said, “Admission now is based on NEET. The state is working towards getting a permanent exemption from the entrance test. Nevertheless, we don’t want to leave students stranded if we don’t get that exemption,” he said.

Free coaching for NEET was introduced by the AIADMK government which made little efforts to seek exemption from the test, Subramanian pointed out. The first announcement about such a course came from AIADMK’s former education minister K A Sengottaiyan, he said.

“While the DMK moved the court to stop the entrance based admission in 2010, the test became the sole criterion for medical admissions since 2017. The DMK supported the legislation against NEET in the TN assembly but the move did not receive presidential sanction. It was later returned by the Union home ministry as there was not enough “pressure” from the then ruling AIADMK,” Subramanian remarked, adding that several students had to face difficulties when NEET was made mandatory.

Ever since the DMK came to power, it has made consistent efforts to ensure students don’t have to write NEET, he said. “Instead of merely passing legislation, the DMK government decided to study the impact of NEET. A nine-member committee under retired justice A K Rajan has been working to study its impact on students. In the past one week, the committee has met at least four times,” the minister said. “They will submit their recommendation to the state within a month.”

In 2006, TN government passed a legislation to cancel entrance examinations for professional courses based on the recommendations of an expert committee headed by educationalist Dr M Ananthakrishnan. “We are hopeful of doing the same thing with the present committee,” Subramanian said.

Committee seeks public opinion:The A K Rajan committee set up TN government to study the impact of NEET has asked members of the public to e-mail their opinions on the issue, not exceeding five pages, to neetimpact2021@gmail.com or by post to the committee office functioning on the campus of Director of Medical Education in Kilpauk before June 23. The DME office has placed a drop box for people to drop hard copies of their opinions. By Friday, the directorate had received at least 5,000 e-mails regarding NEET.

Admission now is based on NEET. The state is working towards getting a permanent exemption from the entrance test. Nevertheless, we don’t want to leave students stranded if we don’t get that exemption

MA SUBRAMANIAN

State health minister