Tamil Nadu set to give special reservation for government school students in med schools

The Tamil Nadu government is set to implement a law to create a special reservation for students of government schools in medical colleges soon, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said at the Assembly on Saturday.

The state is still fighting a legal battle in the Supreme Court against the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test. Making a suo motu statement in the Legislative Assembly on Saturday, the CM said that the reservation would be for students who study from Class I to XII in government schools, corporation schools, municipal schools, Kallar reclamation schools and schools run by the Forest Department.

"Entry of government school students into medical colleges has come down drastically after the introduction of the NEET. The government of Amma wants to stop this trend,” Palaniswami said. EPS also added that the government would form a commission under the chairmanship of a retired High Court judge to collect details and make recommendations to the government. The commission will have secretaries of the Health and Law Departments as members. Besides, two educationists named by the School Education Department will be included in the commission. The Director of Medical Education will be the member-secretary of the commission, reported The Hindu.

“The commission will study the reason for the poor entry of government school students in medical colleges and asses their social conditions before making recommendations to rectify the trend,” he said. The commission will publish its recommendations in one month. The CM said that though the NEET was introduced in 2016-17, late CM Jayalalithaa had obtained an exemption for a year. “We have been opposing NEET and adopted a resolution in the Assembly and sent it to the Centre. We have also approached the Supreme Court and explained how the examination had severely affected the poor and students from rural areas,” he said.