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Tamil Nadu: NEET aspirant dies by suicide after failing to clear entrance exam
“The teenager had attempted the exam for a second time. She had moved to the Philippines to pursue MBBS and was required to clear NEET,” Vijay Raghavan, an inspector at Maduravoyal police station, said.
A 19-year-old woman in Tamil Nadu’s Thirumullaivoyal allegedly died by suicide after she failed to clear the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) UG-2022 exams, results of which were announced late on Wednesday, police said on Thursday.
The teenager was found dead inside her home by her mother at around 3.30am on Thursday. She was immediately rushed to Kilpauk Medical College Hospital (KMCH) in Chennai where doctors declared her brought dead, according to police.
“The teenager had attempted the exam for a second time. She had moved to the Philippines to pursue MBBS and was required to clear NEET,” Vijay Raghavan, an inspector at Maduravoyal police station, said.
The undergraduate medical entrance test took place on July 17. A total of 132,167 candidates appeared from the state out of which only 67,787 cleared the exam.
Over 20 medical aspirants have died by suicide ever since the exam became mandatory in the state in 2017 following a Supreme Court judgment.
In Tamil Nadu, the argument against NEET has been that it disadvantages students from rural and poor backgrounds (who cannot afford coaching), and those studying in boards other than the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
State education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi urged students to refrain from taking any extreme steps if they failed to clear the exam.
“There is a fear that children may take the extreme step, no matter how much confidence we instil in them. We have counselling centres in schools, so I urge students to go there if they are feeling low,” Poyyamozhi said.
“We have begun receiving several calls in our 104 counselling helpline,” Poyyamozhi added.
The state government and all parties, excluding the Bharatiya Janata Party, are in favour of abolition of NEET and to revert to the previous process wherein only the marks obtained in the Class 12 board exams were considered for medical college admissions, the minister said.
Barring the BJP, all political parties in the state last year supported Tamil Nadu Admission to Undergraduate Medical Degree Courses Act 2021 to scrap the NEET exam and admit students to undergraduate programmes in medicine on the basis of their performance in their Class 12 examinations — a move the state government said was in the interest of “social justice”.
The bill is awaiting approval of the President, who denied the same to a similar law passed by the state’s previous All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) government in 2017.
