Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi averred on Saturday that he would never give his consent for the Bill passed by the State Assembly to abolish NEET, the common entrance examination for medical courses, as it had helped students from lower strata of society realize their dream of joining medical colleges.
Ravi had organized an event to felicitate those who had cleared NEET this academic year when the father of a successful student asked him if he would give his approval for the NEET abolition Bill pending before him, prompting the 'never' reply that did not go well with the questioner from Salem.
The parent debunked the Governor's claim that poor students were able to realize their dream of joining medical colleges by telling the media inside the Raj Bhavan premises that he had spent Rs 20 lakh extra in the last five years for the special coaching provided by his daughter's school in association with a coaching centre.
An employee of Salem Steel Plant, Amachi Appan Ramasamy, said that he wanted the abolition of NEET and that he was making the demand after his daughter had successfully cleared the examination and not out of any frustration over her failure - his daughter had already joined the Chengalpattu Government Medical College.
Though he could fund his daughter's coaching as he had a job with a public sector company, many other poor parents would not be able to help their children realize their medical college dream, he said. Referring to a student's testimony that he studied for 13 to 14 hours a day, preparing for NEET, Ramasamy wondered what kind of life it was.
He also questioned the trend among students to sit for NEET repeatedly. He wondered why a student should be forced to go through the same lessons for three years in a row when he had studied another set of lessons to pass his academic examination.
Expressing his exasperation over the Governor saying 'no' to approving the NEET abolition bill, he said that he depended on the government to provide assistance to the parents and even asked when the State had already developed such a robust medical education system in the past 70 years without NEET what was the need for the regime now.
With many television channels recording the interview to media that Ramasamy gave from the lawns of Raj Bhavan, the video soon went viral, and social media channels started highlighting the key points he raised.
