NEET favours urban students, should be scrapped: OPS

Chennai: O. Paneerselvam (OPS), Tamil Nadu’s former Chief Minister said that the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) favoured urban students and should be withdrawn.

In his opinion, the exam favoured the students who had studied in the CBSE stream and led to the students from rural areas losing out on joining medical colleges.

He called upon the Centre to cancel the examination that shattered the dreams of students from marginalized sections of society.

OPS cited interviews of NEET toppers who had told media persons that they had attended coaching classes and that the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) syllabus was enough to crack the examination. He said that except for one, all the toppers had attended coaching classes for NEET which were not affordable for the rural students.

The former Chief Minister said that 75 per cent of the student community of Tamil Nadu are from rural backgrounds and studying in the state government syllabus. He said that this is creating a major discrepancy between students from affluent and urban backgrounds, and rural students.

The expelled AIADMK leader also called upon the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin to put pressure on the central government to do away with the NEET. He also said that it was the Congress government in 2011 that laid the foundation stone for NEET and added that the DMK was very much part of that government.

OPS also said that the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, the late J. Jayalalithaa had vehemently opposed NEET and had said that the students from the rural background would suffer if it was implemented.

With inputs from IANS