Tamil Nadu govt opposes Centre move to conduct NEET twice a year

Stalin opposed HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar’s announcement that NEET will be conducted online twice a year by the National Testing Agency (NTA).

Opposition parties meet in Chennai over Centre's Cauvery management draft scheme

DMK’s working president M K Stalin slammed the Union government for creating confusion over the exam for entry into medical colleges.

The Tamil Nadu government on Sunday opposed the Centre’s decision to conduct NEET twice a year, while the opposition DMK’s working president M K Stalin slammed the Union government for creating confusion over the exam for entry into medical colleges.

School Education Minister K A Sengottaiyan said the state’s stand was the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) should be conducted only once a year. “We will take the matter to the Chief Minister (K Palaniswami) and also take it up with the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) and the Union Minister concerned,” he told reporters in Coimbatore. He said students cannot appear for NEET twice in the same year as a “six-month period will be short.”

Stalin opposed HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar’s announcement that NEET will be conducted online twice a year by the National Testing Agency (NTA). Stalin said it was an effort to destroy the dreams of a majority of poor students from rural and urban areas.

READ | JEE (Main), NEET to be held twice a year, over multiple days, says HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar

Targeting the Centre, he said the Centre was pushing its agenda despite a case being pending before the Constitution bench of the Supreme Court. “These decisions on NEET are coming inspite of the fact that two bills passed by Tamil Nadu are still pending before the President,” Stalin said.

Stalin said the Centre’s decisions were detrimental to the same rural population which got carried away by the BJP’s development slogans and voted for them.

He also recalled how CBSE was inefficient in conducting the NEET and failed in allotting exam centres for Tamil Nadu students in the state. He said it exposed students to troubles with rules to check and frisk them before the exams.

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Referring to the proposed online exam system, Stalin said it will fail a majority of students from urban poor families and rural areas as they do not have access to a computer and are not trained for such exams. He demanded that the Centre drop the plan to conduct NEET online.

Tamil Nadu minister Ma Foi K Pandiarajan backed Stalin and said attempts to conduct exams for IIM online had failed even when it involved only five lakh students. “Conducting NEET online is going to be difficult as it is taken by many more students,” he told reporters Sunday.