TN to enact law providing quota for govt school students clearing NEET

Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, while addressing the Assembly under Section 110 of the Tamil Nadu Assembly Rules, said, “The government will constitute a commission under a retired High Court judge which will recommend the government to enact the law after studying the reason for poor entry of government school students in medical colleges and assess their social conditions.”

The Chief Minister also said that the reservation would be for Class 1-12 students of government schools, corporation schools, municipal schools, Kallar reclamation schools and schools run by the Forest Department. “Entry of government school students into medical colleges has come down drastically after the introduction of NEET. The state government wants to put an end to this trend,” said Palaniswami.

Talking in details about the commission, Palaniswami said the commission will comprise secretaries of the Health and Law Departments as members, two educationalists named by the School Education Department and the Director of Medical Education will be member-secretary of the commission. The commission will submit the report in a month, the CM said.

Palaniswami further said that though NEET was introduced in 2016-17, the late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had obtained exemption for the State for a year. “We have been opposing NEET since its inception and even adopted a resolution in the Assembly. We have also approached the Supreme Court and explained how the examination has adversely affected the economically backward and rural students,” the CM said.

The ongoing Assembly session witnessed intense debate on the NEET issue as both ruling and opposition parties traded charges against each other over introduction of NEET.

Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Saturday announced that the public exams for Class 10 would be postponed to a date after April 14. “Around 9.75 lakh students are set to appear for Class 10 public exams. The exams which were scheduled to commence on March 27 and end on April 13 have been postponed and will commence from April 15, after Tamil New Year,” said Palaniswami, while making a suo moto statement in the Assembly. However, exams for the ongoing Class 11 and 12 students would not be affected. “Two exams for Class 11 scheduled on March 23 and 26 and the one scheduled for Class 12 scheduled on March 24, will be held as usual,” he said.