NEET: 53% students feel exam unfair for economically, socially weaker sections: Shiksha Survey

37% respondents who participated in the survey agreed with Tamil Nadu Government's decision to opt out of NEET.

Tamil Nadu government this week came up with a Bill seeking a permanent exception from the national level medical entrance examination, NEET for the state. The decision was taken after a National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET)-UG aspirant reportedly committed suicide a few hours before the examination, which was held on September 12.

Tamil Nadu governments decision to opt-out of the NEET exam has found a mixed response from academics and students. Shiksha.com conducted a survey among NEET aspirants to understand what they feel about this decision and interestingly, around 37 percent of the respondents who participated in the survey agreed with this decision of the Tamil Nadu Government.

The NEET exemption Bill, passed by the state government in which all other political parties supported the Stalin government, except for the BJP, seeks to ensure ‘social justice and protect all vulnerable student communities from being discriminated against in admission to medical education programmes’.

NEET: Unfair for socially, economically backward section

As per the result of the survey, 53.61 percent of respondents were of the view that ‘NEET exam is unfair on students from certain communities and economically weaker sections. However, 33.66 percent did not agree with this and feel that NEET gives fair chance to everyone.

TN Chief Minister MK Stalin speaking after NEET-UG candidate committed suicide, wrote on Twitter: “Another death at the altar of NEET…Tomorrow we will bring a permanent exemption bill for NEET. Let us take NEET as an issue of the Indian subcontinent." The Tamil Nadu Admission to Undergraduate Medical Degree Courses Bill, 2021 for exempting the state from the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) has been brought on the recommendation of a High-Level committee.

The committee has recommended the enactment of a fresh law to provide for admission to professional degrees like medicine on the basis of marks obtained in the qualifying exam and to get exemption from NEET.

Tamil Nadu has one of the highest numbers of MBBS seats in the country, with as many as 3600 seats in private medical colleges alone.

During the survey, when asked if the respondents expect similar kinds of legislation from their state governments, 43.39% said ‘Yes', while 34.06% said ‘No’ and 22.55% were ‘not sure’.

After NEET, will TN go for JEE?

Tamil Nadu government has opposed NEET as the single national level entrance exam since it came into existence.

The state government moved a similar kind of Bill in 2017 for exemption from NEET and was then also cleared by the state assembly, however, it did not get the President's assent. A section of students and academics feel that the state government should move a similar kind of bill for JEE and other entrance tests to give Tamil students a fair chance.

However, as per the survey results, 42.66 percent of respondents feel that the state should not pull out of other national level exams.

Shiksha Survey

The Shiksha survey was conducted online on September 15, in which over 1600 respondents participated of which 1584 were NEET aspirants, while 72 were others. Of this 56.12% aspirants attempted NEET for the first time while 27.24% have attempted more than once, while 16.64 will appear the first time.

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