Seeking a full review of the medical entrance exam National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), Congress MP Manickam Tagore on Thursday (December 4, 2025) said it has not encouraged merit but rather commercialised education by strengthening private-run “educational empires” and weakening schools.
The Virudhunagar MP from Tamil Nadu said during Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha that a committee set up by the Centre has found lapses in the coaching system in the country.
NEET is for a privileged few and must be abolished, say speakers at seminar in Chennai
Mr. Tagore said the current practice was “flawed” as it focused on only “single stakes exams” that benefited only the rich, the coaching mafia and dummy schools.
“Government school children, rural students, first generation learners, students from SC, ST and OBC communities...all have been pushed out of opportunity not because of lack of talent but because they cannot afford lakhs of rupees on coaching. “The same committee report also highlights structural failures, syllabus gaps across boards, weak formative assessments, even teacher support and rise of dummy schools, these are not accidental,” he said.
