Anitha, a poor Dalit girl from rural Tamil Nadu, committed suicide because she couldn't get a medical seat despite excellent marks in the state board plus two exams: http://www.news18.com/news/india/anitha-the-face-of-neet-protests-in-tamil-nadu-commits-suicide-1507155.html
One assumes that NEET is an appropriate exam for evaluating whether a candidate is fit to be admitted to a medical college as a student. And if a student who got 1176/1200 in the state board exams does very poorly and in the medical entrance exam and hence didn't get admission is it the state's fault?
No matter how poor she was or that she was Dalit.. It is sad but if on the basis of this girl's death were we to remove NEET it would be even worse a scenario.
What is the basis of the state board syllabus and education?
That children should get 12 years education and should not be failed and that the syllabus and exams should help ensure minimum failure.
How is this system going to create the best engineers, lawyers and doctors of tomorrow?
Having said this, i wonder now. What if Anitha was my daughter or my sister or my wife? How would i feel?
A student that gets 98% in board exams is unable to get a medical seat. She comes from a rural poor community. She has banked her entire future on her getting an MBBS seat and it is now denied her.
How painful it must be when you have done all that you could and performed exceedingly well only to be thrown out based on some idiotic NEET? If I never knew about NEET and never prepared for it and if my teachers never taught about or for NEET, it will never be relevant to me. Or to my sister or daughter. Am I at fault if I felt dejected.
What if we followed Bhagvad Gita and put in our best efforts and never focused on the result only to find out later that a result focus is imperative in life and actually more important than putting in the best efforts. How would we feel? That's what happened to Anitha. The interesting thing is no matter which side won (NEET/CBSE or State Board) there would have been some Anitha who would have taken the drastic step. We have children IN TN state who had focused only on NEET and did not focus on State Board exams.
What is the issue here?
The issue is the dual conflicting goal that we have. That the state board is foisted with or cherishes the goal of simple rote memory led education.
The professional courses or industry requires something very different and perhaps more difficult.
Should we:
- Make NEET syllabus the lowest of all board syllabi?
- Should all state boards change their syllabus to those meeting IIT, NEET etc requirements?
- Should TN colleges not allow other board students at all?
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