Both the major Dravidian parties of Tamil Nadu, namely the DMK and the AIADMK, have been opposing the NEET examinations since its introduction in 2016. They say they oppose the NEET score based medical seats admission system because the exam and the manner of seat allocation does not ensure social justice.
Recently, the newly elected Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK
Stalin announced the constitution of a high level committee headed by a former
judge Justice A K Rajan to study the impact of NEET on medical college
admissions in the state.
The official statement released by the state Government
notes that Tamil Nadu has the historical duty to uphold social justice and that
the Government is committed to taking measures to remove the effects of NEET.
The statement further notes that the educationists demand the abolition of the
entrance test and that they want medical
college admissions based on class XII board exam marks as implemented
during the previous DMK Government.
Let us look at the data relating to the selection and
admissions for the MBBS course in Government colleges in the state for the
latest year, namely 2020, to understand the ground realities.
Admissions into private medical colleges and the deemed
universities are not taken into account here as their data are not available in
public. As for the Government colleges also, only the first- phase of
counselling is taken into account for want of details relating to the
subsequent phases.
The data and analysis presented are based on the details
provided by the state Government that are publicly available, collated and
analysed at the personal level. Hence there could be a margin of error to the
tune of 1-2%.
Table 1 presents the total number of seats available in
Tamil Nadu and how the common allotment seats are arrived at.
Table 1 Tamil Nadu
Government colleges - MBBS seats allotment
|
Total number of seats in the state |
3650 |
|
All India quota and wards of ESIC, IRTT |
619 |
|
Total number of seats available for TN students |
3031 |
|
Seats reserved for Government school students – 7.5% |
227 |
|
Seats available Common allotment |
2804 |
Before going to the common allotment
seats, let us see how the 7.5% reservation introduced by the TN Government
during 2020 is benefiting students from the different social groups in Table
2.
Table 2
Allotment of 7.5% seats to different categories (227 seats)
|
|
Official Quota (%) |
Seats due as per Quota % (Rounded off) |
Seats actually allotted |
Percentage of seats allotted |
|
Open Category (OC) |
31 |
70 |
0 |
0 |
|
Backward Classes (BC) |
27 |
61 |
78 |
34.4 |
|
BC-Muslims (BC-M) |
3 |
7 |
12 |
5.3 |
|
Most Backward Classes (MBC) |
20 |
45 |
80 |
35.2 |
|
Scheduled Castes (SC) |
17 |
34 |
47 |
20.7 |
|
SC Arunthathiar (SC-A) |
3 |
7 |
8 |
3.5 |
|
Scheduled Tribes (ST) |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
The table 2 above shows that students belonging to the BC,
MBC and SC categories studying in Government schools have been allotted more
seats than their fixed quotas. Only the
ST category beneficiaries are exactly as per the quota.
Now let us see Table 3 below to see how common allotment
seats have been distributed among different social categories.
Table 3
Allotment of
2804 seats (other than 7.5%)
|
Categories |
Official Quota (%) |
Seats Due as per Quotas |
Number of seats allotted |
Percentage of seats allotted ( Rounded off) |
|
OC |
31 |
869 |
107 |
3.8 |
|
BC |
27 |
757 |
1340 |
47.8 |
|
BC- M |
3 |
84 |
119 |
4.2 |
|
MBC |
20 |
560 |
694 |
24.8 |
|
SC |
15 |
421 |
431 |
15.4 |
|
SC – A |
3 |
84 |
85 |
3.0 |
|
ST |
1 |
29 |
29 |
1.0 |
The above table shows that the candidates from the top two
social categories namely the BC and MBC have been allotted a much higher number
of seats. The students from SC category got 12 seats more, while the ST
category students got seats per their quota. It is the OC category students
that got the least seats.
The two Dravidian majors namely the
DMK, the AIADMK and other Dravidian outfits claim to speak for precisely the
above three major social categories namely BC, MBC and SCs. But they all got a
higher proportion of benefits during 2020. So there is no question of social
justice being denied after the introduction of NEET.
What was the situation before the
introduction of NEET between 2006 and
2016 when students were selected on the basis of XII examination marks?
During the entire period, out of the
total 29925 seats that were available, only 213 Government school students got
into the medical colleges. It comes to just 19 students per year on average. In
other words, it was just 0.7% of students getting into the medical colleges
earlier.
So, educationists who believe that
the earlier examination system helped more government school students enter
into medical colleges appear to be wrong. Moreover, earlier Tamil Nadu students
were not used to joining leading all India medical institutions such as AIIMS
and JIPMER. With the help of NEET now, more than thirty students from Tamil
Nadu have joined such institutions last year.
Students from Tamil Nadu have
capabilities to perform at the all India level when opportunities are provided.
During 2019, while the all India average success rate for medical admissions
was 56.50%, it was 48.77% for Tamil Nadu.
Next year during 2020, the success
rate of Tamil Nadu students was 57.44%, which was higher than the national
average of 56.44%. In just one year, the success rate of our students jumped by
almost 9%.
Hence the main problem is not with
the students; they are among the best in our country. The trouble has been with the state education
system.
Before the introduction of NEET, the
state schools followed the ‘blueprint system’ in which students were trained to
mug up the selected portions and score high marks. And the higher secondary
courses syllabus remained unrevised for twelve long years. XI class subjects were set aside and not
taught at the schools, though they are required for understanding the XII class
subjects.
With the revision of the syllabus
during 2017, teaching of XI class subjects and the provision of training to the
aspirants by the Government, an increasing number of students are entering into
the medical colleges now. Besides the
introduction of 7.5% reservation has opened up more opportunities for the
Government school students.
As a result, thousands of students
from the socially less- advantaged categories join government medical colleges
paying an annual fee of around Rs 15,000 per annum. Even for the students
studying in private medical colleges, fee limits are now fixed by the state.
Besides, NEET marks are now required for getting seats event under the
management quota.
Moreover, Tamil Nadu students have
begun to get more seats under the all India quota based on merit, which was not
the case earlier. NEET provides them an opportunity to study in the best
medical colleges elsewhere in India.
If we add the number of seats that
our students get from the All India quota, the total number of seats will be
more.
During the last two years, Prime
Minister Modi has given Tamil Nadu
eleven new government medical colleges, besides an upcoming AIIMS at
Madurai. It is the largest gift to any state in India. Hence the number of
seats are going to increase by around 1750 in the coming months and the seats
would increase further thereafter for another few years.
Hence what is urgently required is
the provision of training facilities to students for the next few years. The
state government spends around Rs 24,000 crore annually on school education.
Once government schools get ready to
provide better education to help students face competitions, then the training
might be needed for only those who require additional help.
To conclude, the reality is that the NEET cannot be scrapped.
In fact it should not be, as it is a better system for Tamil Nadu students in
many ways. Hence it is the duty of the state to see that the students are
enabled to increase their levels of performance so that they would be able to
compete and succeed at the national and international levels.
In this context, there is an
important point that we have to immediately look into. Students belonging to
the Forward Communities (FC) have not been getting their due for many years.
Apart from Brahmins, there are other
castes such as Saiva Pillaimars and Kamma Naidus that are estimated to number
more than fifty lakhs or so. Though proper figures regarding their population
is not publicly available, estimates say they could be around 10 % or more. But
their share in Government medical college admissions is only 3.8%.
It is time that the state Government
implemented the 10% reservation for the Economically Weaker Sections brought
about by the Modi government at the centre during 2019. This would help the
poorer students from among the FC category to get their legitimate share in the
medical colleges.
So let the DMK, AIADMK and the other
parties who are against the NEET understand the realities and not waste time
confusing the student community and the parents. For heaven’s sake, let the
parties not play petty politics with the lives of the
medical aspirants, and the future of the state.
( Dr.P.Kanagasabapathi, Swarajya,
June, 2021)
