25/08/2017
Tamil Nadu's failure to revise syllabus, Centre's error caused NEET crisis: Madras High Court
|
Madras High Court. (File photo)
CHENNAI: The State government’s failure to revise syllabus for the past 10 years, coupled with the Centre’s error in appointing the CBSE instead of a neutral agency to conduct NEET have led to a situation where the State Board students have registered low performance in the national-level test, the Madras High Court observed on Wednesday.
“The Union government should have appointed a neutral agency to conduct NEET, especially when students from various syllabi are writing the exam. The CBSE should not have been given the task of conducting the exam. It is obvious that it would pick questions only from CBSE syllabus,” said Justice N Kirubakaran.
The judge was making an oral observation, while hearing the arguments on a writ petition from Kruthika, an MBBS aspirant. Justice Kirubakaran did not spare the State government either while fixing responsibility. The authorities here, he said, erred in not revising and updating the syllabus in the last 10 years, which was worsened by poor quality of teaching, leading to the conundrum that has affected the lives of thousands of students.
Related Article
Medical admissions: Just five from Tamil Nadu State Board in NEET top 20Soon, books for NEET in Tamil for better resultsA secure seat is no guarantee against heartbreak with the eligibility testAll it takes is a timely rule and some gumptionNEET mess continuesSC asks Tamil Nadu to follow common NEET for medical admissions after Centre refuses to endorse ordinance
There was a likelihood that some of these students, dejected over the ruling of the Supreme Court making NEET mandatory, might take the extreme step, the court cautioned, and asked the government to take all precautionary steps.
Pointing to a news report about the death of a parent who reportedly committed su***de fearing that her daughter would not get a medical seat due to the uncertainty that prevailed on NEET-based counselling, the judge said he could understand the efforts of students, who burnt the midnight oil to score good marks in the board exams. Now, their dreams of getting medical seats have been shattered.
The State government must ensure that such distressed students and their parents do not resort to any extreme step like su***de, by providing proper counselling, the judge said.
In the case on hand, Kruthika had secured 1,184 marks in the board examination with a centum in biology, and 199 and 198 in physics and chemistry, respectively. Despite this, she did not apply for medical counselling due to low mark in NEET.
Now, on coming to know that the Tamil Nadu government had requested the Union government to sanction over 2,000 additional medical seats for the State, Kruthika wanted the court to allow her to participate in the counselling. But much to her dismay, the judge said that he would not do so.
The petitioner also requested for a direction to the State to provide monetary compensation to the affected State Board students, contending they trusted that the State would keep its promise of getting admission to eligible State Board students based on the marks obtained in Plus Two exam.
Refusing to entertain the plea, the judge said he would pass a detailed order on Thursday.