Cancel NEET permanently: Ramadoss

PMK founder S. Ramadoss on Wednesday reiterated the demand that National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for medical courses should be permanently cancelled after a young medical aspirant from Ariyalur district, who was suffering from mental stress due to the exam, died by suicide recently.

In a statement, he said the student had been under severe mental stress as he was preparing to get more than 500 in NEET to secure a place in a government medical college. “He developed stress after he was told by many that he has to get more than 500 to get a seat in a medical college. As a result, he died by jumping into a well. We can state without doubt that the previous government and the current government, which has imposed and organised the NEET, are responsible for his death,” he said.

Dr. Ramadoss said the young student’s death reiterated once again that the justification for introducing NEET that it improves quality and prevents commercialisation of medical education no longer holds true.

“If the quality of education is being improved, then the students who scored less marks than him should not have been allowed to join private and autonomous medical colleges by paying huge amounts of money. Similarly, if he had gotten secured a seat in a private medical college, he should not be prevented from studying medicine if the intention of NEET is to prevent commercialisation. What is the use of NEET exam when both do not happen?”

Dr. Ramadoss said that NEET has been introduced to allow private universities and training centres to make enormous profits. “If this continues, more students will succumb to stress and pressure. NEET has to be permanently cancelled and Tamil Nadu government should provide ₹50 lakh to the boy’s family and government job for one person in the family,” he demanded.