Uncertainty on Neet still dogs Tamil Nadu students

Chennai: Uncertainty continues to prevail among the student of Tamil Nadu on whether they will have to write the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Neet) this year.

With organisations like the Doctors' Association for Social Equality (Dase) urging the state government to request the Centre for an extension of Neet dates, officials from the state government are continuing their efforts to get the state exempted from writing the test.

While Dase claims that it is requesting for an extension, keeping in mind those students who were unable to apply for the test, it fails to realise that requesting for an extension could imply that the state has now fallen in line with the Neet, said an educationist. 

"We are very hopeful of getting the President's assent. However, if anything goes wrong, it is better to have an extension. It does not mean we have given up hope. We are confident and we know that the Central Government will respect the voice of the people of the state. We are only asking for the extension because many have missed applying for the test," said Dr. G. R. Ravindranath of DASE.

Minister Pon Radhakrishnan, had on Saturday opined that Tamil Nadu students should be capable of competing with students of other states in India and that the demand by the state government to exempt Tamil Nadu students shows the incapability of the state government.

Therefore, the need for efforts from the state government to improve the level of education among schools in the state was felt. "Students should be trained to write Neet. We are asking the state government to improve the syllabus and to train our students to face competitive examinations," added Dr. Ravindranath.

Stating that Tamil Nadu will not give up in its fight for exempting the students from the test, Director of Medical Education Dr. Narayana Babu said that the state's policy is to follow what was followed last year.

The Tamil Nadu government is for the system of counselling to benefit poor students. "A large number of rural students will benefit from the counseling as they will be unable to afford the entire process of the competitive examination," he said.

Students however, continue to ask the same question on what the status of Neet is in the state. "We are very hopeful that the state will be exempted, however, we are still awaiting clarity on the same. Whatever information we get on the same is from the press. We hope that the government does a better job of informing the students of what the situation actually is," said R. Vignesh, a plus two student.