NEET quota necessary, but don’t stop at that
The Tamil Nadu government proposed promulgating an ordinance providing up to 10 per cent reservation in medical admissions to students from government schools who clear the NEET. The state Cabinet recently gave its nod to the proposal. While the number of government students gaining medical admission was low even before NEET—reportedly 34 joined state medical colleges in 2016— it has plummeted with reportedly less than 20 gaining admission in the last three years while NEET has been in force.
There has been a strong popular movement calling for NEET to be abolished on the grounds that it favours those who can afford and access coaching classes and go to CBSE schools. The last two years have also seen a high proportion of students gaining admission after retaking the test. The luxury of taking a year off to study for the test is one few government school students can afford.
While the state has tried to get an exemption for Tamil Nadu from the NEET, its efforts have been futile. Meanwhile, it has been upgrading its state syllabus to bring it on par with CBSE standards and provided some coaching to government school students. The quota proposal is another such effort to help government students access medical education. The proposal is well-intentioned and even necessary, in the short term, to ensure bright disadvantaged students don’t lose out on medical education and to ensure that medicine itself does not lose out on the talents, diverse experiences and insights these children will bring to the table. Medicine has a long history of cruelty, blindness and mistakes borne of being the domain of the most privileged in society.
Diversity and inclusion are necessary correctives to this history. However, experts have said that the proposal may not stand legal scrutiny. Even if it does, the state must not consider it a standalone solution to a problem. There exist real inequities in every aspect of education in TN. The state must continue to upgrade its syllabi and make greater investments in public school education to ensure that every government school student is able to access a world-class education that allows them to thrive and fulfil their potential.