What is the issue?
- The suicide of a 17 year old medical aspirant has snowballed into a major political controversy in Tamil Nadu around NEET.
- This brings back the focus on the need for de-regulating admissions.
What is the basic problem?
- People against NEET argue that the exam imposes unreasonable demands on students from rural areas.
- Its supporters, on the other hand, say that NEET is a welcome push to improve the quality of school education in the State.
- Interestingly, both sides agree that the government has a crucial role to play in education.
- It’s just that one group wants the Centre to be in charge, while others prefer the State government.
How has education been politicised?
- The rigor of school education standards in Tamil Nadu was reduced with the introduction of “Samacheer”.
- This was a populist moves to appease rural voters.
- The current State government has been more than willing to tweak college admission rules to suit its political ambitions.
- The Centre’s stance on NEET has also been fluctuating in tandem with its political equation in the state, which was the primary reason for the uncertainty created.
- The only real solution to prevent polarisation in the long run is to keep politicians out of education by de-regulating it.
- This involves freeing higher educational institutions from government control by giving autonomy to choose the tests based on which they admit students.
Will deregulating admissions help?
- It is believed that colleges which have their reputation on the line will care more than the government about the quality of students they admit.
- This will also effectively end politicisation of education.
- Critics however, fear that in the absence of a central regulator, some colleges will admit students without sufficient screening.
- They might resort to profiteering by granting admissions in an unfair manner.
- While deregulation is a good option in the long run, it should also be noted that Autonomy should come with Accountability.
Source: The Hindu
