Thalapathy Vijay Demands Removal Of NEET

Actor-turned-politician Vijay has called for the scrapping of the controversial Neet exam, saying he saw three different issues associated with the competitive exam.

Participating in an event organised by his political party the Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam to felicitate students who had emerged toppers in various districts of the state in the recently held Tenth and Twelfth Public examinations, Vijay spoke at length about the controversial NEET exam that had come under intense scrutiny following the malpractices and irregularities that had come to light.

Vijay said, “I did not want to speak but I felt it would be wrong if I did not speak about an important issue. You all know what issue it is. Yes, it is NEET. I see three problems associated with NEET. It is against the state's rights. Education was a state subject before 1975. Then, it was added to the concurrent list. I see that as the first problem.

“The second problem is the policy of One nation, One syllabus and One exam. I see this as being against the basic objective of education. The syllabus should be according to the needs of each state. I am not asking this only for the sake of the state's rights. There should be different perspectives in a state's education process. Diversity is a strength. It is not a weakness,” the actor said, before going on to add another part of the problem. “Another important issue is conducting an examination based on NCERT syllabus to students who have studied under state syllabus. Just consider how difficult it will be for rural students and from the marginalised sections,” he said.

“The third problem that I see is we have all been seeing and hearing about the discrepancies in the NEET exam that was conducted in May this year. What has happened is people have completely lost faith in this NEET exam. What we have understood from the news that is coming in is that across the nation, they do not want NEET,” he said, and went on to offer solutions for the problem.

“So, what is the solution for this problem? Removal of NEET is the immediate solution. I wholeheartedly welcome the resolution of the Tamil Nadu Assembly urging the Centre to scrap NEET. I urge the Centre to respect the feelings of the people of Tamil Nadu and not delay and solve the issue quickly,” he said.

“What is the permanent solution for this problem? Making education a state subject again is the solution. In case that is not possible, they must amend the constitution to make provision for a special concurrent list to which education and health must be added. The problem with the concurrent list that is available now is that subjects under this list are completely under the control of the union government. My humble request is that full freedom must be given to state governments,” Vijay said.