Suicide of MBBS aspirants in Tamil Nadu sets off demand for scrapping NEET

Chennai: The tragedy of the suicide of MBBS aspirants, who had scored low marks in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, NEET 2019 has once again set off the demand of scrapping the entrance test by leaders of various political parties in Tamil Nadu.

Medical Dialogues had recently reported about the unfortunate incidents where two MBBS aspirants allegedly committed suicide. A 17-year-old girl from nearby Tirupur allegedly committed suicide just after the results were announced apparently dejected over failing to clear NEET entrance exam. She hanged herself at her house and was declared brought dead at the hospital.

In the other unfortunate case, an MBBS aspirant from Pattukottai district has also taken the extreme step, succumbing to depression over failing to pass the examination

Both the MBBS aspirants were meritorious students with more than 90 per cent in 12th standard.

He said that the Central government should get the President's assent to the bill passed by the Tamil Nadu assembly for exempting the state from the NEET.

The DMK President M.K. Stalin said that in a federal set-up, the Central government should respect the sentiments of the states. Stalin also said the party will raise the issue strongly in Parliament.

The political leaders said the NEET question paper is based on the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) syllabus, which is found to be difficult by students of the state board.

According to them, only students who can afford to join private coaching classes were able to clear the exams, while poor students from rural areas were at a disadvantage in tackling the NEET.

Prior to NEET, medical college admissions in Tamil Nadu were based on the marks scored by the students in the school Board exams.

In the 2019 NEET exams, the pass percentage of Tamil Nadu students increased by 9.01 per cent to 48.57 per cent. A total of 59,785 students of the state have passed out successfully in the 2019 NEET exams, out of 123,078 students who appeared for the test.

The National Testing Agency (NTA), the exam conducting body for NEET this year held the entrance exam throughout the country on 05 May, 2019 and on 20 May, 2019 for Cyclone Fani hit Odisha and Karnataka candidates who couldn't appear for the examination on time due to the train delay for admission to MBBS/BDS Courses in India in Medical/Dental Colleges.

The NEET was conducted across 2,546 centres in 154 cities. The exam was held in 11 languages. As many as 1,28,000 invigilators and over 6,000 NTA representatives and observers were involved in conducting the test.

Read Also: NEET 2019 Result Updates: Analysis, Cut-offs, Scores, Toppers