Chennai: Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK President M.K. Stalin on Thursday renewed his attack on NEET, saying the medical entrance test had failed to deliver on its promised goals and should be scrapped.
In a post on X, Stalin said NEET had not reduced academic pressure, checked the commercialisation of education or improved standards as claimed. Instead, he argued, it had shifted learning away from schools and toward private coaching centres, adding more stress on students and their families.
He said the problems with NEET were structural rather than procedural and that the recent controversy had only strengthened Tamil Nadu’s long-held objections to the examination.
Calling the ongoing student protests a wake-up call for the Union government, Stalin urged the Centre to trust the states while framing education policy. “It’s time to abolish NEET,” he said.
His remarks came a day after he expressed solidarity with students protesting at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi over alleged irregularities in the examination and demand for its abolition.
Stalin said Tamil Nadu had warned from the beginning that NEET would create opportunities for irregularities and deepen inequality in medical admissions. He said the DMK had opposed the exam since its introduction because it hurt students from rural areas, government schools and economically weaker backgrounds.
He added that only a complete scrapping of NEET would provide a lasting solution to concerns over fairness, accessibility and transparency in medical admissions.
Reiterating Tamil Nadu’s stand, Stalin said the state continued to seek the abolition of NEET and urged the Union government to replace it with a system that ensures equal access to medical education.
(Inputs from IANS)