The Indian Express ·
NEET debate: Tamil Nadu education body urges Centre panel to abolish NTA
The NTA is now under a broader examination-reform exercise. The Centre constituted an HPTF headed by Nandan Nilekani to examine the conduct, security, design and governance of public examinations, including those conducted by the NTA.
Amid the long-running debate over NEET as a pan-India entrance test for medical education, a Tamil Nadu-based education rights body has raised fresh objections to the centralised examination system. The State Platform for Common School System–Tamil Nadu (SPCSS-TN) has urged the Centre’s High-Powered Task Force (HPTF) on examinations to abolish the National Testing Agency (NTA) and all centralised undergraduate entrance tests.
In its memorandum to the HPTF, SPCSS-TN argued that undergraduate admissions should be based on students’ board examination marks. It also proposed using Tamil Nadu’s normalisation process for filling all-India quota seats. The organisation questioned whether a central agency should control evaluation and admission and said the present system raises concerns about decentralising of the test and access. These are the organisation’s submissions to the HPTF, not recommendations already accepted by the Centre.
The opposition to the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), however, did not begin with the recent NTA controversies. It goes back to the very process through which a common medical entrance test was conceived.
