The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test goes against the National Education Policy 2020, said K. Ashok Vardhan Shetty, former Vice-Chancellor of Indian Maritime University, while speaking at a seminar on ‘NEET – An academic autocracy’, organised by Muthal Mozhi and All India Save Education Committee in Chennai earlier this week.

Citing various clauses in the NEP pertaining to methods to eliminate coaching centres, Mr. Shetty explained how admission through NEET had favoured private medical colleges as the National Testing Agency (NTA) had revised its minimum qualifying mark regularly. It was more glaring with respect to NEET-PG, where the cut off was reduced to zero.

Competitive entrance examinations are conducted to filter students and not test their aptitude for a profession, said Tiruvallur MP S. Sasikanth Senthil. He added that administrative officers had been saying that the country did not have the infrastructure to conduct an exam of this scale. He said just as students of Tamil Nadu had stayed away from centrally funded institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology owing to the difficulty of the entrance test, they would stay away from NEET in another five to six years.

“A new system of meritocracy was being created,” he said, where only those with money could access coaching and thus, a medical seat. He drew parallels to an era when admission was restricted by caste system, with only the upper caste getting educated as they had the advantage and the financial wherewithal.

Former Vice-Chancellor of Saveetha University Jawahar Nesan said NEET should be conducted by a professional body and not the government and that the latter can only prescribe standards.

“The test is unethical and unconstitutional. It does not examine the candidates on problem solving aptitude, reasoning capacity. The test does not assess students’ academic achievement nor their critical thinking abilities,” he argued. The test had only resulted in mushrooming of coaching centres besides discriminating against the socially disadvantaged students who could not afford coaching, he added.

Thousand Lights MLA Ezhilan Naganathan pointed out that the State had done well by developing an army of public healthcare systems with a dedicated band of medical professionals through the State’s reservation system.

“We have a good ecosystem of diversity,” he said.

According to S. Kasi, general secretary of Doctor’s Forum for People’s Health, NEET PG had caused 79 percent of vacancies in positions for specialty doctors in upgraded hospitals. “NEET is an instrument by the market forces to get doctors for corporate healthcare,” he said.