Policy and Governance

Written in January 2021, as Tamil Nadu reopened schools ahead of board exams during the pandemic, this piece argues that the real crisis wasn't logistics — it was priorities. Governments chose to restore exam schedules rather than use the disruption to fix deeper structural problems: high-stakes standardised testing, inequity between government and private schools, and a system that consistently fails its most marginalised students. The pandemic was an opportunity to rethink.

NEET, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, was designed to bring uniformity to medical admissions across India. But uniformity is not the same as fairness. This piece argues that NEET systematically disadvantages students from state board schools, regional language backgrounds, and lower-income families while disproportionately benefiting those with access to expensive coaching infrastructure. Tamil Nadu's sustained resistance to NEET is not parochialism. It is a princ