Along with the state ruling and opposition parties, the government school students in Tamil Nadu, who cleared this year's NEET, and concerned stakeholders have been demanding Governor Banwarilal Purohit to give swift consent to the NEET 7.5% quota bill, that guarantees reservation to the government students in admission to the medical institutions. 

The Governor has been centered with the staunch demands unprecedently to give his nod for the bill that was unanimously passed in the state assembly on September 15, two days after the students appeared for the national entrance exam. The bill has drawn major attention from the students, stakeholders, and activists who press the governor to give his consent. Why the bill becomes imperative at this current juncture and how it will help the students?

When the Center rolled out the national entrance exam in the albeit of having different educational standards in each state, chasing their dream of becoming a doctor has become non-feasible for the students of government and government-aided schools and with large scale emergence of private tuition centers across the country, the government students were pushed to either to pay lakhs of fees for NEET coaching or to quit pursuing the medical studies. 

In what has become a major relief, the state government students had found a space for training at the government-sponsored tuition centers to clear the exam and to reserve the berth in some of the state-run medical universities. According to the Medical Counseling Committee (MCC), the allotment of the medical seat will be granted on the basis of scores in NEET 2020 result, preferences of choices filled, seats available, reservation criteria, and other factors. With the reservation criteria on the table, the lack of proper reservation has become a hassle and hindrance for the government students in securing admission in the top institutions. 

Though the government passed the quota bill in delay, the state is in a situation that it shouldn't be delayed further. According to reports,  based on the cut-off in NEET 2020, only eight students from government and government-aided schools in Tamil Nadu are at the possibility of securing MBBS admissions this year. The current state has come amid 89 government students in the state who had scored above 300 marks in the national entrance exam. 

Of these eight students who got trained in the state-sponsored coaching centers, four had scored above 500 marks while the rest four include two students from Backward Caste who had scored 497 and 495 marks respectively and two differently-abled candidates and these students are likely to get MBBS seats in top government medical institutions whereas the remaining students who trained in the government centers would less likely have a chance to win MBBS seat in the government institutions. 

The state of the remaining students would be they would be pushed to pursue medical studies in the private institutions by sparing high tuition fees and the 7.5% quota bill would come as a relief to the government school students to get hassle-free medical admissions. Speaking to a news agency, the general secretary of Doctors' Association for Social Equality said that the government must increase the standard of its NEET coaching. 

This year, 6,692 government students had got trained in the government-run centers for the national entrance exam of these students, 1,615 students have cleared the exam, which has been tagged as a potential feat from the government students. The General Secretary had highlighted that if the government implements the 7.5% quota reservation this year, it can be expected that around 370 students from government schools would get MBBS seats to pursue their medical studies. 

According to the secretary of the Alumni association of one of the top medical colleges in the state, the government must provide a separate quota for the government school students. By citing that the state government has changed the syllabus, he admitted that the teachers hadn't trained for the syllabus and they would need four years. Comparatively, the secretary said that in 2017, a student with 480 marks got placed in All India rank 2000. 

However, a student with the same marks in 2020 would be pushed to get placed in All India rank 20,000 which had surfaced a difficulty in securing the MBBS seats regardless of how better the students had trained and performed. He further stated that giving a separate quota to the government school students will also strengthen and enhance the primary healthcare centers in the rural areas, signaling the need for the quota bill of guaranteeing a reservation for the government students. 

The 7.5% quota bill is lying before the Governor for over a month and the ruling ADMK, opposition DMK, and the concerned stakeholders had demanded the Governor to give his approval. The DMK had said it is ready to support the ADMK in the protest to urge the Governor to give his consent to the bill as the students are hoping to have a breakthrough in their medical admissions. As the bill has become imperative for the government students, all eyes are on the Governor as the ball is in his court and whether he plays well for the students or make foul by acting against the bill. 

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