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Issues with the NEET GS: 1 "EMPOWER IAS"

Issues with the NEET GS: 1 "EMPOWER IAS"

 

In news:

  • The Tamil Nadu Assembly has passed a bill exempting the State from the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to undergraduate (UG) medical courses.

 

About NEET:

  • The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) is the entrance examination for entry to all undergraduate and postgraduate medical and dental courses in the country.
  • Until 2016, the All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) was the national-level entrance examination for medical colleges.
  • While state governments used to hold separate entrance tests for seats that were not contested at an all-India level.
  • In 2016, the Supreme Court upheld the newly inserted section 10-D of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 which provides for a uniform entrance examination to all medical educational institutions at undergraduate level and postgraduate level in Hindi, English and various other languages.
  • Now, the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 stands repealed after it has been replaced by the National Medical Commission Act, 2019 that came into existence on 8th August 2019.

 

 

Why TN is against NEET?

  • Non-representative: TN opposes because NEET undermined the diverse societal representation in MBBS and higher medical studies.
  • Disfavors the poor: It has favored mainly the affordable and affluent sections of the society and thwarting the dreams of underprivileged social groups.
  • Exams for the elite: It considers NEET not a fair or equitable method of admission since it favored the rich and elite sections of society.
  • Healthcare concerns: If continued, the rural and urban poor may not be able to pursue medical courses.

 

Views of the stakeholders appointed by TN​

  • A majority of stakeholders were not in favor of the NEET requirement.
  • NEET only worked against underprivileged government school students, and had profited coaching centres and affluent students.
  • NEET had not provided any special mechanism for testing the knowledge and aptitude of the students.
  • The higher secondary examination of the State board itself was an ample basis for the selection of students for MBBS seats.

 

A move inspired by a SC Judgement

  • This thinking of the State may be due to the observation made by the Supreme Court in the selection process of postgraduate (PG) courses in medicine.
  • The Medical Council of India (MCI) had prescribed certain regulations providing reservations for in-service candidates.
  • The Supreme Court struck down regulation 9(c) made by the MCI on the ground of the exercise of power beyond its statute.

 

The bill cannot be passed

  • The present move to pass a fresh Bill on the same lines is most likely to meet the same fate.
  • The President refused to give his assent to this bill.
  • It is significant that no other State in India has sought an exemption from NEET and, therefore, exempting Tamil Nadu alone may not be possible.
  • Even among the seats allotted to the State, there is no bar for students from other States from competing or selecting colleges in Tamil Nadu.

 

Options for Tamil Nadu

  • Data is necessary only when there is power to legislate on the subject concerned.
  • Since the Bill, which will become an Act only after the President’s nod, will come into effect only from the next academic year, the battle for and against the NEET requirement will continue in courts.
  • Hopefully, the courts will determine the legality and have a definite solution to the question of medical admissions within the next year.
  • Till such time, students who wrote NEET will fill the seats under the State quota.

 

Way forward:

  • The time may also have come to examine whether NEET has met its purposes of improving standards and curbing commercialization and profiteering.
  • Under current norms, one quite low on the merit rank can still buy a medical seat in a private college, while those ranked higher but only good enough to get a government quota seat in a private institution can be priced out of the system.
  • The Centre should do something other than considering an exemption to Tamil Nadu.
  • It has to conceive a better system that will allow a fair admission process while preserving inter se merit and preventing rampant commercialization.