NEET thwarts medical dream of underprivileged groups: Tamil Nadu panel

The committee appointed by the Tamil Nadu government to study the exam’s impact has concluded that NEET favours certain groups of society. Here are excerpts from the panel report

NEET seems to have “undermined the diverse social representation” in medical studies by favouring the “affordable and affluent segment” of the society, thereby “thwarting “ the medical dream of those from underprivileged social groups, a committee appointed by the Tamil Nadu government to study the exam’s impact has concluded.

In a 165-page report, the high-level committee headed by Justice (retired) A K Rajan said NEET is successful mainly for the repeaters (71 per cent in 2021) and those students who have gone through coaching (99 per cent in 2020) while opining that Tamil Nadu’s robust health care system will go back to “pre-independence era“ if NEET continues for a few more years.

The report formed the basis of a “legally sound” legislation that the DMK government got passed in the Assembly earlier this month seeking exemption from NEET for students from Tamil Nadu. The Bill needs assent from President, which is unlikely given the BJP’s stand on NEET.

Read | Tamil Nadu girl dies by suicide, a day after she appeared for NEET

‘NEET will take Tamil Nadu to pre-Independence days’

NEET is a highly emotive issue in Tamil Nadu with over 14 students ending their lives by suicide over the fear of attending the exam. Doing away with the exam was one of the poll promises of the DMK, which appointed the A K Rajan committee to go into the issue in detail.

Contending that there may not be enough doctors and experts to be posted in rural areas and in government hospitals if NEET continues, the panel said the rural and urban poor may not be able to join the medical courses.

“Further, ultimately Tamil Nadu may go back to pre-independence days, where, in small towns and in villages only “barefoot‟ doctors were 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 concluded.

The committee, which received over 86,000 comments, a majority of which were against NEET, came down heavily on the exam model saying it promotes “coaching” rather than “learning” relying on data to drive home the point that those who undergo coaching or repeat the exam are at an advantageous position in clearing it.

Drastic fall in the number of Tamil-medium students in MBBS after NEET

Data released by the committee also showed that the number of Tamil-medium students getting into government and private medical colleges has taken a huge hit after NEET came into being in the state in 2017.

While 456 students from the Tamil medium got into MBBS in 2010-2011 when the admission was based on marks scored in plus-two exams, it witnessed a steep fall in 2017 when just 56 students from the Tamil-medium secured admission. The number of Tamil-medium students who had secured admission in 2016, a year before NEET, was 537.

Though 119 Tamil-medium students got into medical colleges in 2018, it came down to 71 in 2019. But the number increased in 2020 as the then AIADMK government introduced a 7.5 per cent quota for government school students who clear NEET in medical admissions.

Percentage-wise, the number of students from Tamil-medium who got into medical colleges came down to 1.6 per cent in 2017 from 19.79 per cent in 2010. In contrast, the number of students from English-medium who secured admission in medical colleges went up to 98.41 per cent in 2017 from 80.2 per cent in 2010.

The share of government school students has fallen from 14.44 per cent on average in the pre-NEET period to a negligible 1.7 per cent in 2020- 21. “This is a clear indication that NEET is medium biased, and it favours only the English medium students as they increased their share from 56.02 per cent (average) in the pre-NEET to 69.53 per cent in 2020-21,” the report said.

Explained | Why is Tamil Nadu seeking exemption from NEET?

‘7.5 per cent quota for government school students is a boon’

The “main culprit” for the seven-fold fall in the share of government school students in medical courses is mainly because of the NEET, such that, “their failure cannot be attributed to the popular claims made by some critics that both the Tamil-medium students and their state syllabus are substandard.”

“Because, with only the same standard, they managed to get at least 14.44 per cent in the pre-NEET period. Historical educational backwardness of the Tamil medium students, and their predominant rural location and their socio-economic conditions, all may be the causes for their overall educational performance. But evidently, the NEET has punished them further for the matters for which they are not responsible,” it said.

The panel also noted that the government school students “were at far remote in getting their due share in the MBBS seat,” till government intervention of reservation.

“When the percentage (of) students who got admitted under this category is considered as regards their repetitive appearance for NEET, which is 70.71 per cent, it clearly indicates that they were not first-timers but after repeated attempts, they succeeded,” the committee added.

Share in rural students go down, urban students go up

The panel also found a 12 per cent (from 61.45 per cent to 49.91 per cent) drop in the share of rural students and a 12 per cent rise in the share of urban students after NEET. This shows that the exam “has pushed the rural lot down in their admission” probably because of inaccessibility to coaching for the NEET exam.

“As coaching and prior preparation are the preparatory factors that are known for success in the NEET, and naturally, when a rural student is deprived of these un-educational activities, how can one expect them to win the race, especially, when it is so an expensive and sophisticated affair,” the committee observed.

It also said the growing repeated NEET test-takers bagging most of the MBBS seats is a “great cause of concern for a developing country". “If NEET continues, only the affluent well-off families would have the privilege to have doctors in India,” the committee said.

Coaching culture should end

Coming down heavily on coaching culture, the committee said this has led to large scale “establishments mushrooming throughout India with retail coaching franchise offering a variety of coaching services like 5-year packages, 2-year packages, 1-year packages, 3 months, and 2 months crash courses, with various slabs of the fee”.

“This coaching market has become a multi-billion industry, having enough financial muscle to even interfere into policy matters in its favour. This has now led to a situation where the medical and health services are largely market-driven and as a result, the medical profession has been transformed from its noble status to a commercial one,” the committee said.

The committee also said NEET, to the majority of students (both successful and unsuccessful), is an “excruciating experience” that creates anxiety and stress and inculcates diffidence among the students aspiring for MBBS.

“Further, with prevailing malpractices, dual domicile exploitations, and impersonation facing a great threat to the genuine contenders, the NEET in totality reduces the confidence of the students and affects their psyche. The NEET does not seem to ensure merit or standard of the students being offered MBBS under its purview,” it said.

The findings indicate that the NEET has only enabled and empowered comparatively the low-performing (in NEET scores and HSc scores) students to get admission to MBBS, it said.