All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has urged the central government to exempt the state of Tamil Nadu from NEET 2021 exam. Instead, the political party in the state is of the view that MBBS admissions be done on the basis of Class 12 marks, citing the pandemic as the reason.
As per reports, this is not the first time that AIADNK has urged the centre for exemption of Tamil Nadu from the NEET 2021 exam. In the previous week, AIADMK has reportedly written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to cancel all entrance exams including the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test. The NEET exam is the mandatory entrance test for admission to MBBS/BDS programs in all medical colleges of India.
It may be noted that the state government of Tamil Nadu has already scrapped the Class 12 board exams this year owing to the pandemic. Instead, a committee has been set up to define the criteria for the assessment of student’s merit. As per reports, former Dy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and Coordinator of AIADMK, O Panneerselvam reiterated that the criteria for admission to UG college degree courses must be on the basis of merit in Class 12. The marks will be decided by the committee set up by the state government for this purpose.
In Panneerselvam’s letter to the Prime Minister, he has indicated that the Performance Grading Index of Tamil Nadu has surpassed the threshold of 90%. The PGI (2019-2020) fiscal of various states and UTs of India has been published by the school education and literacy department of the Union Education Ministry. Tamil Nadu was among the top few achieving A++ grades on the Performance Grading Index. As per reports, the PGI was developed after analysing 70 different metrics which are focused on the quality of education aimed at implementing transformation reforms in the field of school education in Indian states and UTs.
In view of the aforementioned achievements of the state, Panneerselvam is of the view that there is no need to conduct separate entrance exams for admission to professional college courses including entrance exams for admission to medical and dental courses.
The NEET exam is conducted by the National Testing Agency and although the exam has been delayed and set to be conducted tentatively in the month of August 2021, there is widespread uncertainty over the conduct of the exam. Whether the centre will approve or disapprove of the demands of the party will now determine the fate of medical aspirants in the state.
