Equip students

The proposal of the Centre to conduct National Eligibilty cum Entrance Test [NEET] online has come in criticism from the AIADMK and the DMK alike. Leave alone the conduct of NEET exam online, even the very mention of NEET draws fire from the political parties of Tamil Nadu. When other States have no animosity towards NEET, why is it that the political parties in Tamil Nadu oppose it tooth and nail? The idea of strengthening the standards of various exams is to pick up the best and if some students are unable to get through, it does volumes of the students calibre. Heaping blame on NEET is akin to blaming the tools for the poor workmanship. And, in Tamil Nadu, more than the voice of the students against NEET, it is the high decibel sound bytes of the political parties that are heard aloud. When the students successfully take on other Entrance Examinations which are equally tough, why single out NEET? Also, when not much has been heard from the student community on NEET, why this hype and hoopla by the political parties. For the benefits of the poor students from urban and rural areas who may find it

difficult to handle the exam on line, the State government must come up with necessary infrastructure. Instead of merely opposing NEET just for the heck of it, the political parties should do well to help and equip the students so as to enable them take NEET head on and thus being encomium for the State. —VS Jayaraman