Ensure uniform education

With reference to the editorial, “The NEET problem” (September 5), that schools follow the state board syllabus and its students then have to take an eligibility/entrance test based on the CBSE syllabus goes against the principle of natural justice.

Obviously, students with “inherited privileges”, who studied in schools following the CBSE syllabus, have an advantage in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test over those without such privileges and studying in schools following the state board syllabus.

The central government cannot justify its insistence on a uniform entrance examination without putting in place a uniform education system for all students.

Schools across the country should have the same syllabus — it is hard to interpolate Hindutva into science textbooks — equal facilities and teachers of the same calibre.

Expenses for running the schools (of the same standard) should be borne by the government.

NEET is an instrument to enable “elitist” students to get admitted into medical colleges in disproportionate numbers. It forecloses the doors to medical colleges for poor students from humble backgrounds.

A student who got 1,176 marks out of 1,200, with 100 per cent in the core subjects in the state board examinations, cannot be said to be less qualified than a student, who cleared NEET, to get admitted into a medical college.

Dalit student Anitha would have made a great doctor, were she given an opportunity. That was not to be. The central government refused to accede to the request of the Tamil Nadu government to exempt the state from NEET. This led to Anitha’s life being snuffed out and the pretension of the Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre to ensure social justice and cooperative federalism being exposed.

Maruthancode