NEET has failed; time to abolish it, says MK Stalin on paper leak protests

Chennai: Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK President M.K. Stalin on Thursday intensified his attack on the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), asserting that the medical entrance examination had failed to achieve its stated objectives and urged the Union government to abolish it.

In a post on social media platform X, Stalin said NEET had not reduced the academic burden on students, curbed the commercialisation of education or improved educational standards, as originally claimed. Instead, he argued, the examination had merely shifted the focus of learning from schools to private coaching centres, placing additional pressure on aspiring medical students and their families.

Stalin maintained that the shortcomings of NEET were structural rather than procedural and said recent developments had reinforced the concerns consistently raised by Tamil Nadu over the years.

He described the ongoing student protests against the examination as a wake-up call for the Union government and urged the Centre to place greater trust in the states while framing education policies.

“The ongoing student protests must serve as a wake-up call for the Union Government. It’s time to trust the states. It’s time to abolish NEET,” he said on X.

His remarks came a day after he expressed solidarity with students protesting at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, where demonstrators have been demanding reforms and the abolition of NEET following allegations of irregularities in the conduct of the examination.

Backing the protesters, Stalin said Tamil Nadu had warned from the outset that NEET would create conditions conducive to large-scale irregularities and unequal access to medical education.

He noted that the DMK had opposed the examination since its inception, arguing that it undermined social justice and disadvantaged students from rural, government school and economically weaker backgrounds.

According to Stalin, the demand for abolishing NEET should remain the central focus of the nationwide protests, as merely addressing procedural flaws would not resolve the deeper issues associated with the examination.

He contended that only scrapping NEET could provide a lasting solution to concerns over fairness, accessibility and transparency in medical admissions.

Reiterating Tamil Nadu’s long-standing stand against the examination, Stalin said the state, which had played a pioneering role in advancing social justice through the First Constitutional Amendment, continued to seek the complete abolition of NEET.

He urged the Union government to respond to the growing concerns of students across the country and replace the existing system with an admission process that ensures equitable access to medical education.

IANS