The National Eligibility and Competitive Entrance Exam has abandoned the representation of socio-economic and other demographic groups in medical education.
The committee headed by Justice (Retd) AK Rajan to study the impact of the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) on the socially disadvantaged candidates in medical admissions in Tamil Nadu said the aptitude test would take the state back to pre-independence days and the government wanted to follow necessary legal procedures. Let it be eradicated at all levels.
Alternatively, the state government could pass a law indicating the need to exclude NEETs for medical education and obtain the consent of the President. The report, which was earlier submitted to the state government, was released on Monday.
Last week, the state legislature passed a bill to override NEET, in the wake of the alleged suicides of many medical candidates who either failed the exam or appeared in it, after the committee submitted its report.
The NEET omission will “ensure social justice and protect all vulnerable student communities from being discriminated against in admissions to medical education activities,” the panel said.
The score obtained by the students in the Higher Secondary Examination will be the only criterion for admission in the first degree medical program. To ensure equality of opportunity for students from different education boards, score normalization can be followed, it says.
The Tamil Nadu government has formed a committee headed by Justice AK Rajan and eight other members.
” If NEET continues for a few more years, the healthcare system in Tamil Nadu will be badly affected. Different primary health centers may not have enough doctors to recruit. The government hospital may not have enough specialist doctors to be recruited, ”the 175-page report said.
More rural and urban poor will not be able to attend medical courses. ” Finally Tamil Nadu may go back to the pre-independence days, where only ‘barefoot’ doctors were available in small towns and villages. As a state, Tamil Nadu will be among the states in the medical and healthcare system, ”it concluded.
Identify socioeconomic, economic, and other demographic ‘disadvantages’ that lead to poor performance of all relevant students, mainly disadvantaged and disadvantaged, in high school examinations, and according to the severity of disadvantages, scores may be re-profiled. Using a pre-developed framework of “adversity score”, it says in another recommendation.
School education up to higher secondary level should be reformed to comply with ‘education’ as opposed to ‘education’ and to enable and empower students with higher order skills including subject knowledge and reasoning, decision making, social disposition etc. to change the curriculum. Among the seven recommendations.
“The NEET has clearly undermined the diverse social representation of MBBS and higher medical studies, mainly favoring the affluent and affluent sections of the society and similarly disadvantaged social groups,” said the report. NEET has abandoned the representation of social and other population groups in medical education. The social groups most affected were Tamil medium, rural background, government school students, parents with income less than Rs 2.5 lakh and socially disadvantaged and disadvantaged groups like MBC, SC, and ST.
“Therefore, the committee concludes that NEET is against this disadvantaged group,” it said.
(PTI)