Page 22 - EW May 2025

Education News

TAMIL NADU
“Government does not have the
power to regulate private school NEET consensus
fees. If we fix fees, private school
managements go to court. There-
fore, if parents cannot pay fees of n a not unexpected setback to the
private schools, they can enroll their state government, on April 4, Pres-
children in government schools. In Iident Draupadi Murmu ( on advice
addition to good education, in gov- of the Union government) declined
ernment schools, they also get books, to give her assent to the Tamil Nadu
uniforms, milk, eggs, and midday Admission to Undergraduate Medical
meals free-of-charge.” Degree Courses Bill, 2022. The Bill
However, while recommending sought to exempt higher secondary
parents to enroll their progeny in school graduates from the state from
government schools, the education writing the National Eligibility cum
minister is evidently not enamoured Entrance Test (NEET) for admission
of the “good education” provided by into medical colleges countrywide. In
public schools as he has enrolled his 2017, the Central government enacted
son, Surya, in the private indepen- legislation making NEET the common
dent top-ranked Bishop Cotton Boys nationwide exam for admission into
School, Bengaluru, where accord- all of the country’s 700 medical col-
ing to widespread media reports he leges.
topped the ISC school-leaving exam Tamil Nadu’s DMK government
with a 98.25 percent average. had ab initio rejected NEET on until 1976, when it was shifted to the
In numerous dispatches on the grounds that the common entrance concurrent list of the Constitution,
issue of parent-school tussle over exam violates the federal spirit of the education was a state government
fee increases, EducationWorld has Constitution and disadvantages rural subject. Therefore, they want the sta-
persistently warned against govern- students who can seldom afford test tus quo ante on the issue of medical
ment regulation of fees as the thin prep/coaching classes necessary for college admissions.
end of a wedge, leading to stifling of the nationally standardised NEET. n support of the contention that ru-
institutional autonomy and leveling Reacting to President Murmu’s Iral and Tamil-medium students are
down education standards. With rejection of the state government’s disadvantaged by NEET, the DMK
middle and even lower middle class Bill, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. government cites data drawn from
parents avoiding government schools Stalin described it as a “dark chapter the findings of a specially appointed
like the plague (despite the prom- in federalism”. And inside the state, committee chaired by Justice A.K.
ise of “free books, uniforms, milk, rejection of the Bill which decreed Rajan, a retired judge of the Madras
eggs”), informed educationists advise admission into Tamil Nadu’s medi- high court, which found that after the
that the best solution is for parents cal colleges for toppers of the state’s introduction of NEET, the share of ru-
associations to collectively negoti- higher secondary exam, has triggered ral students in Tamil Nadu’s govern-
ate tuition fee increases with school a new wave of debate about the demer- ment medical colleges plunged from
managements. its of centralised exams, social equity, 61.45 percent to 50.81 percent, and of
Meanwhile ‘educated’ middle- and states’ autonomy in education. students from Tamil-medium schools
class parents continue to protest Within Tamil Nadu, there is an all- from 14.88 percent to a mere 1.99
inevitable tuition fee increments of party consensus that NEET will hin- percent. On the other hand, the share
private schools without raising voice der the state’s progress towards the of students from English-medium
against rock-bottom standards in ideals of social justice and educational schools surged to 98.01 percent. The
government schools funded by tax- parity. Since the exam’s introduction suicide in 2017 of S. Anitha, a Dalit
payers. Evidently, they are unaware in 2017, the state’s dominant Dravid- student who had passed the school-
that in developed OECD countries ian pride political parties — DMK and leaving class XII exam of the Tamil
a mere 6-10 percent of children are AIDMK — have been on the same Nadu state board with flying colours
enrolled in private schools as against page contending that the English and but failed to make the cut in NEET, is
48 percent in India. If middle class Hindi dominated NEET format dis- etched in public memory of the iniq-
India practiced active citizenship, advantages students from rural and uity inherent in the centralised NEET.
they wouldn’t need to protest hikes economically weaker households — Comments education consultant
of private schools. especially students of Tamil-medium and student counsellor Manickavel
Reshma Ravishanker (Bangalore) government schools. They argue that Arumugam, a highly qualified alum-

22 EDUCATIONWORLD MAY 2025