Are Non-Urban, Non-English Medium Students not Neat Enough for NEET?

In Tamil Nadu this year, only five students from government schools have made it to the government medical colleges in the state – thanks to the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET).

There are 2,655 seats in the 22 government medical colleges in Tamil Nadu, of which 20 are run by the state government and two by the central government.

As we wait for the final data on the country-wide NEET results, an article about the Tamil Nadu results highlights how biased this exam – introduced in the state this year – is.

Compared to previous years when Class-12 marks were the criterion for medical admission in the state, students from urban areas have benefitted overwhelmingly this time.

District-wise data show that non-urban students have got significantly lesser seats this year.

As Arun Janardhanan writes,

In Dharmapuri district, 225 students entered MBBS in 2016, this year 82 cleared NEET; in Krishnagiri, the figures stand at 338 and 82 respectively; and in Erode, at 230 and 100. In Perambalur district, one of Tamil Nadu’s most socially backward districts with a large number of first-generation learners, just 23 students have got an MBBS seat against 81 last year.

Here are the main issues responsible for these results:

Bias towards English Medium

The CBSE has released data on the students who opted for NEET this year.  Out of the total 11,38,890 students who registered for the exam, 80.16 % or 9,13,033 students opted to write the exam in English.

This is despite the fact that in India, the majority of students do their schooling in Hindi medium, followed by other Indian languages. Yet the students who appeared for NEET in Hindi were just 1,20,663. That is 10.59 % of the total students.

As for those who opted for the exam in other languages, the numbers are much lower.

Does this mean that students who are not from English-medium backgrounds have no aspirations to become doctors, or were they afraid to take the exam? Or was the cost a factor?

Costly applications, costlier coaching

The Tamil Nadu government used to charge no application fees for students who belonged to the SC/ST communities, before NEET came along.

Let us say: out of the total 11, 38, 890 registered students, if 1,00,000 students were from the SC/ST category who paid Rs 750 per application (Rs 7.5 crore) and others paid Rs 1,500 per application ( Rs 155.8335 crore), then the CBSE collected an amount of Rs 163.33 crore.

Now let us add the costs students incur to take coaching for the entrance exams.

If a minimum of Rs 40,000 is paid by one student to avail coaching, and if 1/3rd (3,79,630) students have taken coaching, then the cost incurred by the students is around Rs 1,519 crore (Rs 1,518,52,00,000).

This is a conservative estimate given that coaching centres charge anything between Rs 1 lakh – 2.5 lakh for two years. 

Speaking to Newsclick, Dr G.R. Ravindranath, general secretary of Doctors’ Association for Social Equality, said approximately 14 lakh students take coaching for medical entrance exams in the country.

Anitha took her life as she could not secure a medical seat because of the policy shift to an entrance-based exam that is heavily in favour of CBSE students.

The question that needs to be asked, then, is why is this exam that is heavily dependent on private coaching and biased towards English-medium, urban and well-off students being pushed on all students in the country?

Are there organisations other than the CBSE – the nodal organisation for conducting the NEET – that are making money from this design?

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author's personal views, and do not necessarily represent the views of Newsclick.