Anitha suicide: Angst of parents, students over NEET is rooted in its anti-social justice nature

Dr R Rajesh, a urologist in Trichy, has enrolled his daughter in a coaching class to prepare for next year’s NEET. Though she did exceedingly well in her Class 12 examinations, scoring 196.5/200, she secured only 209/720 in this year’s NEET. “I can afford to shell out Rs 1.3 lakh as the fee for NEET coaching so she will spend the next one year preparing for the exam in 2018. Can the thousands of families from rural areas afford to do so, when it is a hand to mouth existence for many,’’ he asks. Dr Mahesh Perumal, a paediatrician in Dindigul, some 430 kilometres from Chennai, does not want his son to waste one year. So, he got him admitted to a private medical college in Chennai, shelling out an annual fee of Rs 20 lakh. Mahesh’s son scored 197.5/200 in Class 12 and 267/720 in NEET. His NEET score was not good enough for him to get admission to a quality government medical college, where the fee would be much less. [caption id=“attachment_4003273” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Anitha. News18[/caption] “Even if he wanted to prepare for NEET, he could not have as Dindigul does not have a coaching centre. What the two governments in Chennai and Delhi have done is to make common people suffer,’’ says Mahesh. Rajesh and Mahesh, incidentally, were among the four parents who impleaded in the Supreme Court to fight on behalf of their children. Anitha, who committed suicide last week disappointed over the Supreme Court refusing to exempt Tamil Nadu from NEET, was chosen to represent the students of the state on the basis of her very high marks in class 12 exams (196.75/200) and low marks in NEET (86/720) and her socioeconomic background. Her trip was sponsored by an NGO, the State Platform for Common School System, Tamil Nadu, with the state government aware of the arrangements. The news of her suicide was met with a sense of regret in the state bureaucracy, that it did not realise her fragile state of mind. In much of rural Tamil Nadu, the anti-NEET sentiment runs deep and is seen as an imposition from New Delhi. There is also anger at being labelled as students of an inferior syllabus that prevent them from qualifying for NEET. “If you tell me the state board syllabus is not good enough, I won’t accept it. I have read all my daughter’s textbooks. The standard of Zoology is MBBS standard. NEET follows the CBSE syllabus which is why CBSE students have a better chance of qualifying. What you are doing is to push everyone towards NEET coaching institutes. Then why have schools at all?’’ asks Rajesh. The Class 11 and 12 syllabi for the state board was prepared under NCERT’s guidance by the Directorate of Teacher Education Research and Training. But because this syllabus is vastly different from the NEET syllabus, students are unable to crack it without proper coaching. “I am not against NEET. But implement it after changing the syllabus and making it uniform. To test state board students by giving questions out of syllabus is not fair to them,’’ says Mahesh. In 2016, when Union health minister JP Nadda gave exemption from NEET, it was because he recognised the syllabus in Tamil Nadu was different. A year later, he glosses over the fact that the syllabus has still not been changed. To make students suffer for the mistakes of the state government defies all logic. “What makes it worse for students in rural Tamil Nadu is that even if students want to study in CBSE stream, no Tamil textbooks are available. Why should a rural student be deprived of an opportunity to become a doctor?’’ asks Rajesh. All this is held as an example that NEET is anti-social justice and anti-equality. “Last year, 20 students from a government school in a backward district like Ramanathapuram got through to a medical college. A majority of them were backward classes and Dalits. Now with a financial inability to get coached for NEET, the next few batches will not produce any medical students and doctors,’’ says Prince Gajendra Babu, Secretary, State Platform for Common School System. Even for those taking admission to private medical colleges, it is not as if NEET has brought down the fees. At the college where Mahesh’s son has taken admission, the annual fee till last year was Rs 12 lakh. In addition, the college would insist on donation to be paid in cash. Now the fee, entirely paid in white, has been hiked to Rs 20 lakh. A look at the profile of students who have got through NEET this year shows how the state board students have suffered. Around 1,200 of the 3,600-odd seats have gone to CBSE students. Another 1,200 are those students who passed out last year, enrolled themselves in NEET coaching classes and managed to get through this year. The remaining 1,200 are from the state board, who either attended coaching classes or have figured in the bottom part of the ranks and won’t get admission to premier colleges. The takeaway is that only the affluent who can spend money on coaching classes can crack NEET. This means BPL (below-poverty-line) families who aspire to raise the bar will not be able to because there is no money to fund their dreams.