Tamil Nadu state has been against the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for medical education from the very beginning. Speaking about this at the marriage function in the family of a party functionary held in Pattukkottai on Sunday, August 27, Minister of Youth Welfare and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) youth wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin said that the Union government has been thwarting the dreams of Tamil Nadu students of becoming doctors through NEET, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express. 

The DMK youth wing secretary recalled that recently the youth wing staged a state-wide protest demanding the abolishment of NEET.

Adding more, he also spoke about the recently introduced breakfast scheme by the 'Dravidian Model' government which has been benefiting around 18 lakh students studying Class I to Class V in government schools and was well received by students and parents. Claiming that Tamil Nadu is the first state to introduce such a scheme in the country, Udhayanidhi Stalin urged the party cadre to take such schemes to the public at large.

Students deaths

Tamil Nadu has been reporting student deaths, the reason being the failure of students to clear the NEET exam. Recently a father-son duo made headlines for the same. The son Jagatheeswaran, 19, identified as a medical aspirant died by suicide and was reportedly hopeful of cracking the NEET until the very last minute before he suddenly reversed his decision and ended his life.

Unable to cope with his son’s demise, Jagatheeswaran’s father also took his own life. These two deaths sent shock waves across Tamil Nadu. As per reports by PTI, Jagatheeswaran allegedly sounded confident of clearing the test on his third attempt, even hours before taking the extreme step and convincing his father to pay the fee at a coaching centre in Chennai.