NEET woes continue to haunt Tamil Nadu

NEET exams were held all over India today. But right from the day the 'Admit cards' were issued by CBSE; medical aspirants from TN were in for a rude shock. After issuing the cards, the CBSE announced no change in examination centre will be facilitated. Grudgingly many students who were allotted centre's outside the state made travel arrangements very much against their wish and financial means, because becoming a doctor is their life time ambition. Most of them in their teens had to be accompanied by one of their parent's. Additionally they had to spend money for their accommodation, reach the location one day in advance and report one hour earlier at the exam centre.

A PIL was filed in Madras HC against the allocation of far off examination centers by CBSE.  Surprisingly CBSE made a bizarre argument in court that except TN, for all other states, exam centers were allotted with in their state.  On April 27, 2018 the Madras HC ordered CBSE to re-allot the examination centers for the Tamil Nadu NEET candidates within the NEET examination centers, nearest to their residence, situated within the State of Tamil Nadu. Relieved students cancelled their travel arrangements. When media men asked CBSE about any possible appeal against the HC order, CBSE said they have not yet received the HC order. Later on, CBSE files an appeal against the Madras HC order and on May 4, barely two days before the scheduled May 6th NEET examinations, SC overturns the Madras HC judgment and directed the students to appear for the NEET examination at their allotted centers only. It was a jolt for the medical aspirants from TN.  Though CBSE argued all centers were allotted by computers and there is no human intervention, it defies logic. All students were asked to give 3 preferential choices of centers with in their domicile state. And there was an instruction that no one should select a centre out of their domicile state. Despite this how could computer allot centers outside the state? Is something wrong with the software allotting exam centers?  SC direction was based on CBSE contention that there is short of time to arrange exam centers in TN now. This argument is apparently implausible because CBSE had more than 25 days at its disposal,  to reallot centers. before sending Admit cards. The only consolation is, SC recogonised the mess created by CBSE and made an observation in their judgment that such goof ups must be avoided by CBSE next year. Nevertheless I felt SC could have been more sympathetic and given some relief to TN students by upholding the HC verdict and postponed the exams by a week and directed CBSE to reallot the preferred exam centers in their domicile state.

It is reported over 5000 students from TN had to make travel arrangements at the eleventh hour to reach their examination centers allotted in neighboring states like Kerala, Karnataka, and Telengana .It is reported that some of the students were allotted far off centers in Rajasthan and Sikkim. Many good Samaritans, few NGO's and Tamil Associations in the other states  volunteered to extend a helping hand to students writing exams in other states by providing free accommodation, free to and fro transport to exam centers etc. Kerala government was the first to announce help desks at Railway stations to help TN students and directed its officers to reach out to students who need help.  Later TN government also announced free buses to transport students to exam centers and an ex gratia amount of Rs 1000 per student.  Mosques in Kerala provided free accommodation to students.

It was generally felt students appearing for NEET in another state would be under severe stress and would not be able to prepare for the exam because he/she has to travel a long distance. But unfortunately a TN student's father died, while his son was writing the exam at the Ernakulum centre. The young boy unaware of his father's death was writing the exam and the tragic news greeted him once he was out of the hall.  Compassionate Kerala government, did all possible help to shift his body to his native place and deputed police officer to accompany the body.

Other goof ups by CBSE were also reported in TN. A village girl was allotted a centre in Salem.  As per the admit card, she went to the centre, the authorities did not permit her to write the exam. The centre mentioned in the Admit card was right, but the computer code mentioned in the Admit card corresponds to a centre at Kollam in Kerala. Authorities asked her to go to Kollam and write the exam, just  1 hour before the exam. For no fault of her, this poor girl, from a remote TN village was not allowed to write the exam. How atrocious is this? Who is going to make good the loss she has suffered! .

Students are permitted to write exams in Tamil also, this is done for the benefit of state board Tamil medium students. They should be given questions papers with English and Tamil. Instead they were given question papers with English and Hindi in one of the centers in Madurai. They were given the correct cyclostyled question papers after 5 hours. Until then they were made to wait inside the hall. But the authorities do not permit candidates to enter the exam centers even if he/she is late by one minute. This has also happened at many centers. The worst part is all students who were given wrong question papers and made to wait were forced to sign a statement in English that they were not subjected to any mental stress. Some of them didn't even know the contents of the declaration signed by them. Normally students who appear for any exam brings the question paper with them, once the exams are over. For these students who were given wrong question papers and subsequently cyclostyled question papers were issued were all taken back by the authorities and were not returned to them. 

This year also the bizarre frisking was done. The dress code for NEET is ridiculous.  Despite protests against funny and ridiculous frisking of students by CBSE in the previous two years, it was conducted this year also. This is worse than the TSA 'pat down' in US airports. Who are we dealing with, students or terrorists? .I am surprised to note why union minister Prakash Javdekar is silent about all that is happening? Is he also busy with Karnataka election campaign!

TN is fighting against NEET; but now CBSE has made TN fight for allotting exam centers in TN. Is it not an oxymoron?  But unlike many others, I don't suspect any ulterior motive in what happened.

But reasons to do away with NEET exams are still valid. As long as India has multiple boards of education such as CBSE, CISE and state boards, it is not right to have common entrance exam based only on CBSE syllabus. Competitive exams are always different from qualifying exams. Majority of the students study in State board syllabus, therefore NEET exams can't be tailored for CBSE syllabus. In the absence of uniform standards, a national eligibility exam based on CBSE syllabus is not justifiable. I do agree there is a need to upgrade state board syllabus. CBSE claims it is a common entrance exam, but  it was alleged last year, the question papers set in various regional languages were in different standards. It was not a translation of the English version. How could this happen?

In 2013 SC Chief Justice Altmas Kabir quashed the Medical council of India's notification to hold NEET for MBBS and BDS in 2013, and called it ultra vires to the constitution. CJ Kabir delivered the judgment on the day of his retirement. Justice Dave was the only judge to give a dissenting judgment among the three judges of the bench.

The late TN CM Jayalalitha was fighting tooth and nail against NEET. JJ wrote to the then PM Manmohan Singh and said "this judgment has brought to end a vexatious issue which medical aspirants had to undergo, due to the uncertain selection process, which is against the interest of Tamil Nadu." She had to write this because the union government was then planning to move the SC for a review.  She wrote,  "Tamil Nadu strongly objects to any such fresh purported attempts by the Government of India to seek a review of the judgment of the Supreme Court and efforts for reintroduction of NEET in any manner as it infringes upon the State’s rights and admission policies to medical institutions in Tamil Nadu. She argued that the state has followed a reservation policy of 69 % for backward and most backward communities and Scheduled castes and tribes in professional courses. Arguing that NEET would go against the Socio-economic objectives of TN, she urged the PM to drop the review petition.

 When BJP was swept to power in 2014, she again quickly gave a memorandum to Modi to drop the review move by the previous government. When government under Modi was planning to reintroduce NEET, she again objected strongly that it will infringe the states rights and admission policies to medical institutions in TN.

Surprisingly in April 2016 SC reopened the case and revoked its own verdict. The reason cited by SC  was that the judges did not have sufficient time to consult among themselves before delivering the judgment and reversed its own earlier judgment and ordered for conducting NEET for admissions to medical and dental colleges in India. The TN state counsel then pleaded that 'There are no entrance exams in TN. He said this state policy was made a statute in 2007 to achieve aspirational parity between rural and urban students in TN.

Because of CM Jayalaitha's efforts, Centre passed an ordinance to exempt TN from NEET for the year 2016-17. In May 2016, she again wrote to Modi thanking for passing the ordinance swiftly and said,  " the ordinance is only a temporary address to the issue for the current year ,TN's situation is distinct and different from other states", and wanted "necessary measures to be taken to ensure TN is permitted to continue the existing fair and transparent system of admission to medical and dental colleges in the state" .

Thus in 2016 TN was exempted from NEET. In 2017 TN students had to write NEET finally, when their hope for another one time exemption again, was shattered at the last minute.  There was state wide protest over the death of 19 year old Anita, TN state topper and  a medical aspirant in 2017, committed suicide when she could not secure a medical seat on account of NEET (She had secured 1176/1200 in Plus two exams)

CMC Vellore, one of the oldest medical institutions of the country decided to suspend admissions to MBBS and super specialties courses for 2017-18, as it was unable to follow its established admission process after NEET became operational.

What is the way forward?

The TN Assembly passed a unanimous Bill seeking exemption for TN students from NEET in last week of January .The bill was sent to Central government for presidential assent. But there is no response from the union government on this till date. Surprisingly neither the state government nor the union government talks about the fate of the bill! .Is it because there is no towering leader like JJ at the helm of affairs in TN? With the inaction of centre on the Bill, NEET woes for TN would only continue unabated like this. As Dr. Ramdoss says reasons cited by CMC for stopping admissions to its medical colleges is applicable to all government colleges in TN, the TN government should take a cue from CMC Vellore, to force some resolution to this ticklish issue. .

NEET is an anomaly. NEET is one of the biggest injustices to India's education system that is not uniform throughout the breadth and length of the country.  Education can not be taken out of the socio cultural, autonomous and linguistic interests of the states. The central can not control education in states. Education should be brought back to states list from concurrent list. Education was shifted from state list to concurrent list by Mrs .Gandhi in 1975 during the emergency. It should be reversed now. Above all NEET would produce quality doctors is a gross misconception. What we need in India is a quality, all pervasive health care system with more number of dedicated doctors to serve the rural areas.