The government of Tamil Nadu, in a cabinet meeting held on Monday, gave the go-ahead to pass an ordinance to provide quota in medical admissions for government school students who clear the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).
The decision to promulgate an ordinance was based on the report submitted by retired judge P Kalaiyarasan, who was appointed by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami to study the fall in government students getting admitted into Tamil Nadu’s medical colleges.
On Monday, Chief Minister Palaniswami led the cabinet meeting where approval was granted for an ordinance providing 10% reservation for government school students within the existing quota system in medical admissions.
This reservation is touted to be applicable horizontally across various categories of candidates qualifying for the NEET, within the quota existing for candidates from the Other Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu had recently said that the draft bill, which will provide for reservation within the existing quota system for students who clear NEET and who have studied from Classes 1 to 12 in government schools, will soon be introduced in the Assembly. He had mentioned that the number of government school students getting admitted into the state’s medical colleges had decreased after the introduction of NEET and formed a commission under former Justice P Kalaiyarasan.
The commission’s role was to analyse the socio-economic background of students and submit recommendations to the state government on how to increase the number of government school students securing MBBS seats in the state. The commission was given a month’s time to come up with its recommendations.
Data available with the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) shows that the number of students with a government school background getting an MBBS seat has been steadily decreasing over the years. In 2016, 34 students who had studied in government schools secured admissions in medical colleges. This number went down to seven in 2017 and five in 2018. In 2019, only two students from government schools ended up securing MBBS seats in medical colleges.