Describing as path-breaking the directive of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court for grant of additional marks to Tamil-medium NEET candidates for wrongly translated questions, School Education Minister K.A. Sengottaiyan said on Tuesday that Tamil Nadu expected the Centre to implement the order.

The State will calibrate its approach on the development based on the Centre’s action, Mr. Sengottaiyan told mediapersons on the sidelines of a refresher training programme for Education Department officials at the Indira Ganesan College of Engineering.

“On our part, initiatives are in place for equipping students to fare well in NEET,” he said.

“While Tamil Nadu’s appeal in the Supreme Court to scrap NEET still stands, the State will, at the same time, equip students for competitive examinations conducted by the Central government,” Mr. Sengottaiyan said, referring to the inclusion of 40% content pertaining to competitive examinations in the revamped Class XI portions.

This year, as many as 1,078 students from Tamil Nadu had passed NEET. Efforts will be made to increase that number to 5,000 next year, through training programmes at 412 centres, he said.

Skill training will be integrated into the Class XII syllabus to boost career prospects of students, the Minister said.

The government was planning to hold a 10-day orientation programme for one lakh teachers on the new syllabi for Classes I, VI, IX and XI in five stages, the contents of which could be downloaded by the students, he said.

In Chennai, Prince Gajendra Babu, general secretary, State Platform for Common School System -TN, said the court order exposed the hollowness of the ‘merit’ concept. “The government must release a fresh rank list and start the counselling process again. It should defend the judgement in case the CBSE goes for appeal,” he said. It should not take the stand that the process was over.

Source: Read Full Article