A.K. Rajan Committee submits its report on the impact of NEET on students in Tamil Nadu to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin

The A.K. Rajan Committee, which studied the impact of the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) on students from the socially backward classes, has submitted its report to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin.

Justice A.K Rajan (left) chairing a meeting of the committee in Chennai on June 14.

The A.K. Rajan Committee, which studied the impact of the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) on students from the socially backward classes, submitted its report to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin a day after the Madras High Court dismissed a case against the constitution of the committee.

The Tamil Nadu government formed the committee headed by Justice Rajan on June 10 and it was given a month to submit its report. The committee presented a 165-page report which took into consideration suggestions from 86,342 persons who had mailed in or sent in their views.

“A majority of the people said that there was no need for NEET,” Rajan told mediapersons later. “There were views for NEET too,” he said. “A few suggested that we hold NEET this year; a few others said that Tamil Nadu should hold it for two years etc…. The report that we have given the Chief Minister is based on the data generated from the opinion of the people who wrote to us. It is not our opinion,” he added.

Rajan said that with the submission of the report, the tenure of the committee had come to an end. The committee had clearly articulated the impact that NEET will have on the socially backward students of Tamil Nadu and had recommended pathways for action. It was for the government to consider the committee’s report, discuss and act on it. When pressed further, he said that he was not in a position to reveal any more details. It was up to the government to give details of what the committee had recommended.

Meanwhile, the Union government is going ahead with its decision to hold NEET in September, at a time when experts predict that the third COVID-19 wave will hit India. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that registrations for NEET (undergraduate) 2021 have started at the website (ntaneet.nic.in) from 5 p.m. on July 13.

In another tweet on July 13, he posted: “The NEET (UG) 2021 will be for the first time conducted in 13 languages with new addition of Punjabi and Malayalam. The languages now being offered are Hindi, Punjabi, Assamese, Bengali, Odia, Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Urdu and English.” He continued: “This is in line with Hon. PM Shri @narendramodi’s vision of promoting regional languages under NEP 2020.”

Responding to the tweet, Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, Governor of Telengana and Lieutenant-Governor of Puducherry, said: “Tamil, Telugu among 13 other regional languages in NEET as per #NEP2020 new education policy, a visionary initiative of @PMOIndia for #FutureIndia. Mother tongue gets pride of place in respective states.”

Since the Union government has started the NEET process, educationists say that it would be better if Tamil Nadu students prepare for NEET this year. As a first step, career consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi suggests that since the NEET 2021 applications process has started, the Tamil Nadu government should consider reimbursing NEET application fee to all government school students. “This request was made for the last two years,” he noted on Twitter and said that he hoped that the new government would accept the request of the students.