Bring education back to State list: Stalin to Centre

“All subjects that have a direct connection with the people should be transferred back to the State List (from the Concurrent List) of the Constitution. Especially education - as it would help us eradicate exams like NEET,” Stalin said.

With the suicide of a medical aspirant weighing heavily on his mind, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday pushed for the transfer of Education subject back to the State list of the Constitution as he contended that only such a move will help put an end to exams like the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET).

In his Independence Day speech after unfurling the national tricolour at the Fort. St. George, the seat of the Tamil Nadu government, Stalin also underlined the need to bring all subjects that have a direct connection with the people to the State list.

Stalin’s remarks come amid a renewed debate in the state over NEET after a 19-year-old student ended his life because he could not get admitted to a medical college despite clearing the exam. A day after the tragic incident, unable to bear the loss, the father of the 19-year-old also died by suicide.

The incident also prompted Stalin to write to President Draupadi Murmu, asking her to clear the anti-NEET bill re-enacted by the Tamil Nadu Assembly in 2022. In his letter, Stalin said each day of delay in its implementation costs not only valuable medical seats to deserving students but “invaluable human lives to our society.”

In his speech on Tuesday, Stalin recalled that DMK founder C N Annadurai and party patriarch M Karunanidhi had insisted that states should be vested with autonomy in a federal set-up. “All subjects that have a direct connection with the people should be transferred back to the State List (from the Concurrent List) of the Constitution. Especially education - as it would help us eradicate exams like NEET,” Stalin added.

Education, which was originally in the State list, was transferred to the Concurrent list in 1975 during the Emergency imposed by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Since then, the subject has remained on the Concurrent List, allowing both the states and the Union to draft laws.

The DMK has been pushing for the need to transfer Education to the State List and has in the past accused the BJP of using the subject to impose regressive practices.

NEET has been a contentious issue in Tamil Nadu where the exam is perceived as “anti-poor” and “discriminatory” in nature against students from government schools and from rural backgrounds. At least two dozen students have died by suicide since 2017 in direct connection to the exam.

The DMK government moved the 'Tamil Nadu Admission to Undergraduate Medical Degree Courses Act, 2021' - which passed the legislative assembly - only to be rejected by Governor R N Ravi in February 2022. The legislation was passed once again and sent back to the governor. The Act is now pending before President Draupadi Murmu.