Chennai: Another suicide by a girl student, attributed to failure to score high in National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test, has rekindled the debate on the exam and its repercussions in Tamilnadu.
According to reports, 17-year-old RithushreeĀ of Tirupur ended her life as she was upset that she did not score well in NEET. She had notched up 490 marks in class 12 board exam and was hoping to land a medical seat through the national entrance test.
In 2017, S Anitha, a 17-year-oldĀ DalitĀ girl ofĀ Ariyalur, committed suicide after she failed to score good marks although she had securedĀ 1176 marks out of 1200 in her class 12 exam. State-wide outrage over her death broke out and several political parties and students voiced their opposition on the medical entrance exam.
The trend continues now. With Rithushree’s death, there is a call from political leaders to scrap NEET for Tamilnadu.
DMK president M K Stalin expressed grief over the death the student and demanded that NEET be scrapped in Tamilnadu.
Reacting to the issue, State Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar said the government was opposed to the all-India entrance exam. He said Tamilnadu would continue to pressurise the Central government to give exemption to the State students from NEET.
CPI(M) State secretary K Balakrishnan has said they would not call the death of students who do not make the cut in NEET as ‘suicide’ but ‘murder’. Speaking to mediapersons in Chennai this morning, he said the entrance test was shattering the dreams of Tamilnadu students.
He pointed out that the State’s students had scored less than the national average in this year’s test.