Ongoing testing: Chief Minister Jayalalithaa announced in 2005 that TNPCEE would be phased out. But it was operational till 2006-07 due to legal intervention. Here, students check their TNPCEE results in Chennai in 2004. | Photo Credit: N. SRIDHARAN
The Tamil Nadu Parliament, in its last session two weeks ago, had a heated debate on the issue of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to medical courses, the abolition of which was promised by the ruling DMK in time for the 2021 Assembly elections.
A few days later, a letter approved by veteran civil servant T. Pitchandi, who has devoted a separate chapter to the Tamil Nadu Professional Courses Entrance Examination (TNPCEE), which is called the State variant of NEET and which was popular between 1984 and 2006.
Mr. Pitchandi served in the Chief Minister’s Office for nearly nine years (1978-87) when MG Ramachandran (MGR) was in charge. In his memoir, Enakkul Manakkum MGR Ninaivugal, he traces the idea of ​​TNPCEE to a conversation MGR had with Anna University Vice Chancellor VC Kulandaiswamy in 1982. The Chief Minister, who had the image of a compassionate administrator, advised the education expert to ensure that candidates from rural areas seeking admission in engineering courses were treated gently in the pre-admission process.
Selection costs
When Ramachandran encountered complaints about interviewers being impartial, he asked Mr. Pitchandi to research the matter and give him a report. What saddened him was that a public servant found something tangible in these complaints. In his book, he describes how a student from a fishing community in Kanniyakumari district was mistreated by interviewers. Despite this student scoring 95% in the qualifying exams, he was denied admission due to his low score in the interview. The author, who prepared his report after listening to the tapes that contained the recorded voices of the conversations, compares the case of the student from Kanniyakumari with that of the student from Chennai who was treated with respect by the interviewers and accepted into engineering courses. Mr. Pitchandi attributes the impetus for the demand for vocational courses in the early 1980s to the MGR government’s decision to adopt the 10+2 curriculum in 1978 in place of the Pre-University Course (PUC).
At the same time, a perusal of material in The Hindu Archives reveals that the idea of ​​an entrance test was being considered from the late 1960s. VR Nedunchezhian, the Minister of Education and Industries in the first DMK Cabinet led by CN Annadurai, in an interview with reporters in Madurai in June 1968, admitted that a section of education experts made the proposal but clarified that the government had no proposal to present. regular entrance exam. Even in the 1970s, the Christian Medical College, Vellore, and the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Puducherry, admitted students on the basis of their performance in the entrance examinations. Mr. Pitchandi, who was part of the 1981 batch of IAS, narrates how MGR had discussed with Education Minister C. Aranganayagam, Kulandaiswamy, and senior officials on pitfalls in the old system of admission based on performance in the aptitude test and in school. the interview. When the entrance test was suggested, MGR replied that it would only benefit urban students. Some officials pointed to the complaint of students of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) that they were not admitted because of low marks in the qualifying exams because of the high standards of education. They want a process of adaptation. Finally, it was left to Kulandiswamy to come up with a proposal where a candidate’s performance in either mathematics or biology, physics and chemistry papers of the qualifying examination (subject +2) would be equally limited to 200 marks. This, along with the candidate’s performance in the entrance test (of 100 marks), will be considered for eligibility. MGR, according to a government official, has advised that 10% of the questions in the regular exam be set aside to test the general knowledge of the students. He also emphasized that the interests of students in the villages must be protected.
Petition of DK against TNPCEE
The Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) moved the Madras High Court with a petition challenging the introduction of TNPCEE. A few days before the trial, the court rejected the petition and granted it. “An entrance test system will undoubtedly prove more beneficial to the student body than an interview system,” said Justice S. Natarajan, The Hindu reported on July 11, 1984.
Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, in June 2005, announced that TNPCEE would be phased out, amid growing demand for it. But, due to legal intervention, TNPCEE was operational till 2006-07. The DMK government (2006-11) brought in a law to abolish the entrance examination and from 2007-08, admissions were made on the basis of students’ performance in higher secondary examinations. Only in relation to medical and dental courses, there was a change in 2017, with the introduction of NEET.
Mr. Pitchandi, who retired in April 2009 after holding the post of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Commissioner for more than four years, feels that instead of the entrance examination being withdrawn nearly 20 years ago, the importance of marks in the examination. it would have been lowered. This would pave the way for the importance of marks in qualifying exams, ultimately benefiting rural students. Such a course may save the State from the NEET issue, the author adds, citing the opinion of one section of the concerned population.
Published – January 21, 2025 10:47 pm IST