Chennai: On Saturday evening, Chennai teenager Jagadeeswaran died by suicide allegedly after he failed to clear the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for the second time. Unable to bear the loss, his father, Selvasekar, took the extreme step two days later.
Before taking the tragic step, Selvasekar requested Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to ensure the DMK’s poll promise of banning the medical entrance examination in Tamil Nadu. “The first promise that Stalin sir gave after coming to power was that the government would cancel NEET. No other parent should suffer like I am suffering now,” the grieving father had told the media on Sunday.
Over 20 NEET-related suicides were reported in the state since 2017 when the entrance exam was made mandatory in India, according to various news reports.
Condoling the deaths of the father and son, Stalin urged students “to not entertain suicidal thoughts” and to have self-confidence to live life. In a statement, the chief minister also announced that his party would boycott Governor R.N. Ravi’s Independence Day tea party at the Raj Bhavan.
The two deaths and the Governor’s remark supporting NEET has once again brought the focus on the medical entrance exam in the state, triggering a slugfest between Ravi and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government.
Why Tamil Nadu is against NEET
Since 2007, Tamil Nadu has had a legislation allowing students to enter into professional colleges on the basis of 12th standard school results. This, the political parties contend, was beneficial for students as it was less stressful as they had to just focus on one exam.
From 2017 onwards, political parties had been against NEET, DMK spokesperson Manuraj Shunmugasundaram told ThePrint. “Tamil Nadu opposed and continues to oppose NEET for the simple reason that the examination is inherently discriminatory, perpetuates inequality and is entirely unnecessary,” he said, adding that there was no data to show that NEET helps standardisation.
“By virtue of the syllabus, NEET only favours urban students who can afford additional (paid) coaching. Naturally, it is anti-poor, anti-rural and unfair.”
Educationist K.R. Maalathi points at the challenges — be it the curriculum, or the assessment the students from the state board face — when it comes to competitive exams. “Though the Tamil Nadu state curriculum and the CBSE curriculum which is used for NEET assessment are similar, what goes wrong is the mode of assessment. While the state exams are more of memory recollection, NEET is competency-based assessment,” she told ThePrint.
She further said that the medium of instruction in the government schools are mostly in Tamil. To comprehend questions in English or even the translated Tamil questions in the NEET is a challenge for such medical aspirants, she added.
In its 165-page report, the A.K. Rajan Committee submitted that in government medical college admission, students from English medium maintained an average of 56.02 percent in the pre-NEET years and rose to 69.53 percent in 2020-21 in the post-NEET. Tamil medium students fared at least 14.44 percent average in the pre-NEET and ended up at only 1.7 percent in 2020-21 in the post-NEET.
The panel was formed in June, 2021 and was given a month to study the NEET’s impact on students from the socially backward classes.
“Compared to the pre-NEET period, the Tamil medium segment was the worst affected segment which lost almost nine times of its share that it enjoyed in pre-NEET, to the English medium group in the post- NEET,” it said.
“While the rural students maintained an average of 61.45 percent in the pre-NEET and fell down to 49.91 percent in 2020-21 in the post-NEET, the urban students who fared 38.55 percent average in the pre-NEET rose to 50.09 percent in 2020-21 in the post-NEET period,” the panel said, after comparing admissions in the government medical colleges.
Educationist Baskaran Krishnamurthy said NEET has been politicised and that there was no need for the entrance exam.
“The projection of NEET as a challenge is high in Tamil Nadu compared to other states. There are several tougher competitive exams in India, but the cases of suicides due to failure is much lesser in them. NEET is politicised, polarised and there is a false propaganda done with it,” said Baskaran.
Maalathi asserted that the focus for NEET ban is more about protecting the state government students given their economically deprived backgrounds and the disadvantage they would face to access private coaching.
In the interview before his death, Selvasekar had said that he spent over Rs 1.60 lakh twice for his son’s coaching at a private institution. Jagadeeswaran cleared CBSE Class XII in 2022 with 427 marks. Selvasekar had paid the advance for the third year for his 19-year-old son to prepare again.
Governor vs DMK govt
The NEET political debate was revived 12 August when a parent asked Governor Ravi when he would clear the bill banning NEET in Tamil Nadu. At a function to felicitate NEET toppers in the Raj Bhavan, the parent asserted that many parents were unable to spend money on NEET coaching.
“It is a subject on which only the President is competent to give the clearance. Given to me, I shall never give it,” Ravi said in support of the entrance exam.
Prior to the NEET, the Governor said, private medical colleges saw medical admission as a money minting process that had swelled to become a Rs 1,000 crore business.
“It was all out corruption; all out making money. I will be the last man to give clearance. I don’t want my children to feel intellectually disabled but to compete and be the best,” he asserted.
Both the DMK government and the previous dispensation headed by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) had adopted anti-NEET bills seeking exemption from the entrance exam.
In his letter to the Governor, Stalin called Ravi’s remarks “irresponsible” and added that it belittles the state’s effort towards banning NEET.
He also assured the students that the NEET will fall soon after a regime change in Delhi for which the state is fighting. “Then, all those who say ‘I will not sign’ will also disappear,” Stalin said, referring to Ravi. “The DMK, whether in power or not, will continue to fight for the welfare of the people.”
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami, meanwhile, said the DMK had been campaigning that it would bring a ban on NEET since 2017. “At least now, Stalin should consult legal experts to find a solution to scrap the national eligibility test,” he said in a statement.
Noting that the assembly had passed resolutions and also a law to ban the NEET, Manuraj contended that the bill is currently pending with the President. “We are hopeful that the Union Cabinet will advise the President to act quickly and act in the interest of the state,” the DMK spokesperson said.
In its report, the A.K. Rajan panel had said that if the NEET was to continue for a few more years, “Tamil Nadu may go back to pre-Independence days, where in small towns and in villages only ‘bare-foot’ doctors catering for the needs were available”. “Tamil Nadu as a state would go down in the rank among States, in the Medical and Health Care system,” it warned.
Maalathi recalled how there has been a raft of NEET-related suicides, beginning with S. Anitha in 2017. “Students have been misguided by the government and authorities by giving false promises that this (NEET) will be cancelled. Instead of giving false promises, they should provide guidance to students so that they can prepare for such competitive exams,” the educationist asserted.
If you are feeling suicidal or depressed, please call a helpline number in your state.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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