Relevance:

• GS 2 || Governance & Social Justice || Human Development || Education

Why in news?

The Tamil Nadu Assembly passed a Bill to restore the medical admissions mechanism that existed in the state before the introduction of NEET.

What is the foundation behind NEET?

• NEET is built on a core curriculum approach, in which all school boards’ syllabi have been taken into account.
• The CBSE, Council of Boards of School Education, and the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) developed it, and the Medical Council of India approved it.

How does it work with NEET?

• Over-centralisation is becoming a reality in the field of education.
• NEET is a direct attack on university and higher education institutions’ autonomy, particularly private, unaided institutions.
• The rights of unassisted private institutions and minority institutions cannot be infringed in the guise of the state’s ability to “regulate.”

What are some of the problems with the Indian educational system?

• There are 50 separate boards in India, yet there is no uniform core curriculum.
• These boards have very different approaches to curriculum design, curriculum transaction, and curriculum assessment.
• So yet, no substantial attempts have been made to bring these curricula closer together.
• Only a few state boards have prepared their material in accordance with national board curriculum, notably in science disciplines, but many have not.

What exactly are the problems with NEET?

• There are claims that NEET is interfering with state governments’ ability to control admissions to medical institutions that are sponsored by them.
• Those from some state boards are at a disadvantage when compared to students from progressive boards.
• Students in rural India and those who attend state-run institutions appear to have a lower probability of succeeding.
• These exams do not accurately assess pupils’ attitudes and abilities.
• There is a higher concentration of pupils passing the exam from national boards.
• Currently, a candidate can claim residency in many states, lengthening the admissions process and allowing for fraud.

What were the rulings of the courts in this case?

• NEET was first declared unlawful by a 2:1 decision in the Christian Medical College, Vellore (2013) lawsuit.
• This ruling was permitted to be reviewed in 2016.
• In addition, even before a complete hearing by the Constitution Bench, the dissenting judge in the 2013 decision declared NEET mandatory.
• The Supreme Court ruled in April 2020 that prescribing NEET for medical school admissions did not violate anyone’s basic rights.

How disadvantaged do students become?

• Coaching establishments are flourishing as a result of NEET and other comparable national examinations such as JEE and CLAT.
• Poorer pupils from rural backgrounds are at a disadvantage because the majority of them are in cities.
• There is also significant variance in the syllabus and standards of the Central Board of Secondary Education and State boards, and the NEET paper has been leaked twice in the previous four years. As a result, there is little faith in NEET’s impartiality and openness.
• There’s also the issue of mistranslation. In the 2018 NEET, there were 49 questions with Tamil translation mistakes.
• However, one of the benefits of NEET is that it allows students to take numerous examinations.
• Students would be able to qualify without having to repeat a year if they failed one exam.

Does NEET promote merit?

• Meritocracy’s ideals necessitate competitiveness and fair opportunity.
• Competition cannot be described as fair and just in the case of NEETs, and equality of opportunity becomes a mirage.
• NEET and other admissions exams, without a doubt, do not fulfill the core standards of meritocracy.
• It’s questionable if NEET is assessing the multidimensional notion of merit correctly.
• Common entrance examinations fall short of assessing skills like imagination, curiosity, and motivation, which are critical for learning.
• In the United States, empirical study on such examinations has revealed that they are skewed towards the poorer and impoverished parts of the community.
• As a result, there is a ‘class’ component to NEET that the Indian judiciary has thus far disregarded.

What options do we have?

• Because it is the best “coached,” not the finest “talent,” who succeeds in such an exam, the federal and state governments must give top-notch preparation.
• To ameliorate the problem, the question typology and question paper design must be modified.
• To protect the quality of future doctors, an upper age limit may be established.
• A uniform domicile law should be implemented, requiring candidates to claim seats exclusively in their own state, preserving state sovereignty.
• Vacant seats can be replaced later by centralized counselling, with all candidates being assigned seats based on their merit.

Mains oriented question:

How our education system is still struggling in achieving its goal, be it medical or UGC exam clash between center and state has been a common issue regarding patterns or seat allocation among caste categories. What steps are needed? (200 words)