DNA Explainer: Tamil Nadu scraps NEET, how will it affect medical admissions

To take admission to the various Undergraduate Medical Degree courses across the country, interested and eligible students every year take the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test. However, things may be different for students of Tamil Nadu from next year.

Tamil Nadu government has passed a new bill on Monday to stop admission in medical courses on basis of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test. Since it challenges a central law, it cannot come into force until and unless approved by the President of India.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin tabled the bill in the state Assembly with all other parties including the main opposition AIADMK and its ally PMK supporting the Bill. The BJP, however, staged a walkout, protesting against it. "It has been passed to ensure social justice, upholding quality and equal opportunity to protect all vulnerable students' community to being discriminated and bring them to the mainstream education system," the bill read.

Tamil Nadu has been in strong opposition to the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test saying NEET is not an equitable method of admission, arguing they favour affluent students who can afford private coaching. This is the main reason behind passing the bill in the state Assembly.

Main points of the bill

If it gets a nod from the President, students in the state will be able to get entry to medical colleges on basis of their marks in Class 12 Board exams.

Tamil Nadu parties oppose national entrance exams arguing they favour affluent students and that poor and rural students are at a huge disadvantage.

Tamil Nadu had no entrance examination for medical admissions and made medical admissions on the basis of class 12 marks for many years.

In June, Chief Minister MK Stalin formed a committee headed by retired judge AK Rajan to study the impact of NEET and increasing coaching centres.

On the basis of the findings of the committee, the government recommended the immediate elimination of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test.

The retired Madras High Court Judge said the report was prepared after looking into around 86,000 representations from various stakeholders.

The report that was submitted in July, said that from the representations of various stakeholders, a majority of whom said they don't want NEET.

If NEET continues, the healthcare system in the state will be badly affected as there will not be enough doctors at Primary Health Centres, the panel said.

Provisions of the bill

The Permanent Exemption Bill exempts medical aspirants from taking the NEET exams for admission to UG degree courses in medicine, dentistry and homeopathy.

It seeks to provide admission to medicine, dentistry and homeopathy courses on the basis of marks obtained in the qualifying examination.

The aim of the Bill is to ensure social justice, uphold equality and equal opportunity, protect all vulnerable student communities from being discriminated against.

The motive is to bring vulnerable student communities to the mainstream of medical and dental education and in turn ensure robust public health care across the state.

The Bill opposes NEET because it 'undermined the diverse societal representation' in MBBS and higher medical studies, favouring mainly the affluent class.

NEET is not a fair or equitable method of admission since it favoured the rich and elite sections of society, the preamble of the Bill to override NEET said.

Social groups most affected were the students of Tamil medium, having a rural background of government schools, those having a parental income of less than Rs 2.5 lakh per annum

If NEET continued, the health care system of the state would be severely affected and there may not be enough doctors for Primary Health Centres or state-run hospitals.

The high-level committee making a detailed study on NEET concluded that the rural and urban poor may not be able to pursue medical courses if this continued.

Admissions to medical courses are traceable to entry 25 of List III, Schedule VII of the Constitution and therefore the state legislature is competent to regulate the same.

Tamil Nadu legislature's competence to legislate on this subject was attributed to the Statement of Objects and Reasons (SoOAR) of the bill.

Students from affluent sections go abroad for higher studies after MBBS and the number of doctors serving in the state is declining, the bill said.