Tamil Nadu reserves 7.5% medical, dental college seats for govt school students

Tamil Nadu Assembly on Tuesday passed a bill that provides 7.5 per cent “horizontal reservation” in admission to medical and dental courses to students from government schools who clear the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET).

The move to provide reservation was taken after the number of government school students getting into medical colleges witnessed a massive dip in the past few years after the introduction of NEET. The 7.5 per cent reservation would ensure that at least 300 government school students get into medical colleges every year after clearing NEET.

However, introducing the Bill, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, told the Assembly that the government was still opposed to conduct of NEET and is firm in its stand that Tamil Nadu deserves exemption from the entrance exam.

“In the interests of the government school students, I told the Assembly on March 21, 2020, that they will be eligible for horizontal reservation in admission to medical and dental colleges. I also constituted a committee under the chairmanship of retired judge P. Kalaiarasan to go into the issue. The panel recommended a law for this purpose which was cleared by the State Cabinet,” Palaniswami told the Assembly.

The reservation would apply to all government colleges and government quota seats in self-financing medical colleges in Tamil Nadu, the CM added. Tamil Nadu believes NEET is discriminatory against rural students as they are forced to compete with those who come from urban areas. The government had in 2017 passed two bills seeking exemption from NEET in the assembly, but both were rejected by the Centre.

However, activists are not too enthused with the move to provide reservation for government school students, though they say, “something is better than nothing.”

“This reservation would only help students who take NEET and score good marks. But the problem here is the fear of NEET has forced many medical aspirants to dump their dreams and aspire for some other course. The government should find ways to get NEET scrapped which is the need of the hour,” Prince Gajendrababu, activist and general secretary of State Platform for Common School System (SPCSS –Tamil Nadu), told DH.

He added that exemption from NEET was the “permanent solution” to the problems being faced by medical aspirants in the state.