A senior Tamil Nadu government official said that the state government was opposed to the NEET because it was loaded against rural students, pointing to Anitha's case as evidence.
The suicide of S Anitha on Friday after failing to get a medical seat has re-energised protests against NEET in Tamil Nadu, with questions being asked over the role of the state and Central governments.
The daughter of a daily wager, Anitha, who is also a Dalit, had scored 1178 marks out of 1200 in her Class 12 state board exams, but could score only 86 out of 720 in the CBSE syllabus-based NEET exams. She would have got into Madras Medical College if admissions had been done solely on the basis of Class 12 marks, a system followed in the state since 2007.
A senior Tamil Nadu government official said that the state government was opposed to the NEET because it was loaded against rural students, pointing to Anitha's case as evidence.
The state government also opposed the NEET, saying it infringed on the state's rights over admission policy. Educationists have been opposing NEET saying that CBSE students would have an edge over other board students. As per government statistics, of the total 3,534 government quota seats, about 35 per cent of MBBS seats, or about 1,236 seats, have gone to CBSE students. In 2016-17, that number was a mere 30, a senior official said.
NEET-backers point out that the poor performance of the state board student in the common entrance examination was because of the poor syllabus. The state board examination, they argue, was rote-based while the CBSE system is application-oriented.
The state education department is now revising the board syllabus to bring it on par with CBSE, including introducing board exams at the Class 11 level.
Dr G R Ravindranath, general secretary of Doctors Association for Social Equality, said while he is not opposed to NEET, the Centre should let the Tamil Nadu government decide on admission policy for government quota seats.
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