The NEET debate
The argument that some extend in favour of the National Eligibility-cum-entrance Test (NEET) is that it promotes merit. But one cannot turn a blind eye to the sad reality that it has been promoting the coaching industry that has no scruples when it comes to levying prohibitively high charges which in turn impact the poor and economically marginalised (Editorial page, “‘NEET is discriminatory, against social justice’,” February 9). The very commercial and profit-oriented intent of such coaching centres is manifest in the expensive and self-promoting advertisements that they publish in the print media. Education has been reduced to a profiteering enterprise. Moreover, any attempt to impose a fit-for-all entrance examination of this kind, without taking into consideration the social, economic and territorial barriers that people are confronted with, violates the very sense of equality.
S. Balu,
