Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi on Saturday, August 12, said that he would never clear the Bill to exempt Tamil Nadu from the National Eligibiligy-cum Entrance Test (NEET). He was addressing top scorers of the NEET UG 2023 entrance exam, from Tamil Nadu, at Raj Bhavan in Chennai.
During the event Enni Thuniga, 'Think to Dare' - series 8, he met toppers and their parents. One parent, who participated in the event, asked Ravi when he would give clearance to the Bill to ban the NEET exam. Ravi retorted: “I’ll be the last man to give clearance to ban the NEET. I do not want my children to feel intellectually disabled. I want our children to compete and be the best and they have proved it”
Ammasiyappan Ramasamy, the parent of a student who cleared the NEET exam this year, who asked that question said that the standards of medical infrastructure in the state are better and it was achieved without NEET. Ammasiyappan also said a lot of parents spend huge amounts of money on NEET coaching. The video shows his mic being taken back from him after he raised these questions.
Ravi said that the Bill has been sent to the President as education is in the concurrent List of the Constitution. “It is a subject in which only the President is competent to give the clearance. Given to me, I shall never give it. Be sure about it” Ravi said.
Talking about the NEET coaching classes, he alluded that state board syllabus are not up to mark to qualify students to clear the exams. “Many students I've seen who cleared NEET without going to coaching institutions. Because their schools and teachers taught them. The books they prescribe are Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) books. That's the standard. If the standard (of the State board syllabus) is lower than that, don't blame the standard. You have to raise the standards. CBSE standard and syllabus is very good and NEET is not beyond that,” Ravi said.
"Let there be no confusion, NEET is going to stay in the country. I want my children to be competitive & best in the country...", he reiterated. The Tamil Nadu State Assembly passed the NEET Exemption Bill for the second time in February 2022. The Bill was first passed in September 2021 but was returned by the Governor.
Later, meeting the press persons Ammasiyappan said that he was happy that his daughter cleared the NEET exam and secured 623 out of 720 marks and got a seat in Government Chengalpattu Medical College. But he is concerned that there are so many students who could not go to the coaching centres to clear the NEET because of their economic background.