Suggestion of A Framework for Analyzing the Impact of NEET

Usually when I seized with the opportunity to express good-faith and be a boy-scout I sit down and wait for the impulse to pass. At this age, nothing is more unseemly than optimism.

Unfortunately today,  I sat in front of a keyboard. Quite counterproductive, it was. Sent off an email without as much as a spell-check.

Now I have duly foisted it on you, my loyal readers (readers, அதாவது plural!) 


Sir/Ma'am,

I am ________________ , a resident of Tamil Nadu, a citizen of India.
I strongly welcome the institution of a commission to study the impact of NEET.

In this highly politicized debate what has been sorely missing is a rigorous data-driven analysis of the actual impact on the ground. 

Legislators have been almost unanimous in claiming that children from rural, financially poor, historically educationally backward backgrounds are affected by the introduction of NEET.

While this claim does theoretically stand to reason, we have yet to see any proper publication of data to back it up.

The likes of me sincerely hope this commission corrects this vagueness with incontrovertible data.

I would like to humbly submit a suggestion of a framework of analysis, which the committee can consider.

Status Quo Ante - Baseline

As a baseline, I suggest we take the numbers from the years preceding the introduction of NEET.
Say for the top n seats in the final TN medical admission list.

Create a matrix of 3 dimensions:
  1. Children from Poor/Non-Poor backgrounds (Use a standard definition of 'Poor' - for instance, you can consider using the definition like the one used for the 'creamy layer' categorization)
  2. Children from Govt Schools/ Private Schools
  3. Children Urban /Rural
In essence, there would be 8 categories (2X2X2) into which the children can be distributed.

Crucially this needs to be done 
  • within each reserved category, and
  • by splitting the General category into the shares of the seats achieved by children from each of the categories.

    The matrix to be populated would look something like this:


Use of this framework
This framework can be used to see:
  1. How the seats were distributed prior to NEET
  2. How the seats were distributed in the NEET regime
    1. How the seats would have been distributed if NEET were not in place. i.e. taking a year in which NEET was in operation, and preparing a simulated admission list based on twelfth exam scores alone (i.e. the existing admission formula before NEET)
    2. How does this compare to the distribution in pre-NEET days. i.e. whether there is any underlying gravitation that is happening over time across these categories, or is it largely static?

Importance of this framework
  1. Currently, only data up to the granularity of reservation category level is available in the public domain. But this does not throw ANY light whatsoever on the impact of NEET
    1. For instance, it may appear that within the reserved seats themselves there is no impact at all - because those seats are, by definition fixed. But this is misleading. This framework will throw light on whether well-to-do, urban, Private school children within each of the reserved categories have gained a significant upper hand now due to the introduction of NEET. This will serve THE crucial unpacking that this committee needs to do.
  2. Secondly, in the GEN category too it would be instructive to see how the seat-shares have shifted pre/post NEET
    1. A cursory analysis showed, there is an increase in the share of the GEN group children and a decline in the share of BC children in the GEN category. Whereas the share of SC children (for instance) did not seem to decline much.
    2. But, the above analysis is highly limited because there is no data in the public domain of the poor/nonpoor  X govt school/private school X urban/rural categories of the children. 
    3. So there is no way of knowing if urban-nonpoor GEN category children edged out (say) urban-nonpoor BC children, or if the shift has come at the expense of poor X rural X govt school children.
      1. If the former is the case it ought to be lesser of concern insofar as it points to competition in the GEN category between children of otherwise comparable backgrounds. 
      2. But if the latter is the case, then it would be highly concerning. This is the kind of insight sorely lacking in current public discourse on this issue.
    4. Please note: the study needs to account for domino effects - that some children with urban X non-poor backgrounds who may have earlier made the cut in the general category, may now be pushed by the NEET regime to taking up seats in the reserved category, which may in-turn diminish the chances of the fellow members from their category who happen to be from, say,  rural-poor backgrounds.
    5. Frustratingly all these remain conjectures without data. Hopefully, this committee's report will make a clear case with the data.

Policy Guidance

In this highly emotive and yet acutely data-parched debate, this committee is invested with the responsibility of seeding what serves as a guide to future policy.

Therefore, although you are not tasked with drafting an alternate policy itself, I humbly suggest that this committee takes into account a related point:

Your eventual report will rigorously measure and demonstrate the impact of NEET on poor-rural-govt school children.
But these are by no means three independent variables. 
Not only is there is significant overlap, but there is also likely to be significant skew based on the underlying reservation categories themselves.

So, it would be very much within the purview of this committee to study to what extent the newly announced scheme of internal reservation for govt school children, is likely to ameliorate the existing situation.

The framework suggested above can also serve to measure the same (i.e. you can simulate what would have been the seat-shares if such a reservation were in place in the past). This exploration can help answer the following questions:
  1. Regardless of NEET, to what extent does this measure improve the accessibility to the disadvantaged. i.e. have the rural X govt school X poor children, been significantly underrepresented in professional education even prior to the NEET regime? 
  2. Now, if applied in the NEET regime to what extent is it likely to counteract the disadvantage newly foisted on these groups.
    •   i.e. do they end up with at least as many seats as they secured in the pre-NEET scenario? 
    • Is it sufficiently remedial to justify a transition to a new approach to admission into professional courses, with all its attendant transition difficulties? Or is it nowhere close?

Conclusion

Finally, none of my suggestions have anything to do with the principles of federalism, the extent of the authority of a State in education, the delicate matter of inter-state admissions, and so on.

I am restricting myself to the purview of this committee - measuring the ground impact of NEET.

I wish the committee the strength of objectivity and the clarity of purpose that is needed for the task ahead. 
I look forward to reading your report.

Yours Sincerely,
____________

Comments

  1. A very good set of ideas/pointers to the AK Rajan committee of dravidian apparatchiks. விழலுக்கிறைத்த நீர், though!

    Hope they get the time/inclination to read it - though apparently they have already decided about what their 'findings' are going to be.

    I don't think they are capable of even understanding the english part of it, leave alone the reco part of your well-formed suggestions. Honest. Hope you know and understand the caliber of the committee.

    Of the 9 members of the Cabal, AK Rajan is a certified dravidian scum and has always curried favor with DMK. He even did a 2 year study of how to combat corruption & improve admin in DMK's regime and gave a bulky report to M Karunandhi. https://twitter.com/othisaivu/status/1410152649970704386

    The irony. He is also a very well known Dravidian supremacist, and has written terribly formed polemical books against Brahmins, Aryans, North, India and everything in between. ISTR that he also submitted a report about Temple reform, archakas-for-all schemata a while back.

    Second member is that useless GR Ravindranath, a doctor so-called and a member of CPI. He campaigned for DMK-CPI candidates. He is a well known gasbag.

    Third member is that gasbag personified, Lenin Jawahar Nesan, who is a stupid SJW but calls himself an educationist with nothing else to his credit. He bleddy rants against capitalist edu system! bah!

    6 others are seatwarming babus from TN Govt.

    ங்ஙொம்மாள, வெளங்கிருண்டா. :-(

    (Having said all that, mea culpa! I also committed a similar mistake and sent a loooong document, though I was not so rigorous and methodological like you - but wrote from the perspective of an experienced school teacher who actually dealt with rural - poor - pvt and pub school kids, from Vanniyar and SC backgrounds primarily - one issue was that I wrote it in Tamil, what with its terrible inadequacies about jargon/technical words.

    விழலுக்கிறைத்த நீர்.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank You.
      I started out writing in Tamil and I just couldn't get the points across clearly so I did the lazy thing. I think there is tremendous value of writing things like this in Tamil - that is where rigour is sorely lacking and being substituted with emotion.

      There were appeals on twitter which were just on the format of 'இது ஏழைக் குழந்தைகளை பாதிக்குது, ஆகவே தடை செய்யவும். இப்படிக்கு..'

      That is a signature campaign.
      N number of signatures still mean nothing.
      Or at least they ought not to mean anything.

      What matters is the how they are going to analyze it.

      /விழலுக்கிறைத்த நீர் /

      As I said, optimism is unseemly. I just wanted to take a stab at how it may be approached so we have a shadow of a chance of some insight.

      /loooong document/
      If you have the time and inclination to anonymize and summarize what the teacher had to say, and put it up in your blog, it would be good. It is exactly the kind of thing ('thick description' !) that is rare.

      I follow you on twitter (I use it as a newsfeed only nowadays) and I saw your post.

      I have read Honbl. AKR's report on temple reform. It is an atrocious screed. I mentioned from gems from it in a comment in PAK's blog.

      https://pakrishnan.com/2021/06/13/%e0%ae%8e%e0%ae%b2%e0%af%8d%e0%ae%b2%e0%af%8b%e0%ae%b0%e0%af%81%e0%ae%ae%e0%af%8d-%e0%ae%85%e0%ae%b0%e0%af%8d%e0%ae%9a%e0%af%8d%e0%ae%9a%e0%ae%95%e0%ae%b0%e0%af%8d-%e0%ae%aa%e0%af%82%e0%ae%9a%e0%ae%be/#comment-2440


      I should probably write a post about it to disabuse anyone of the impressions that AKR's recommendations come from a sincere place. But I'm lazing about it, because someone more capable and more widely followed on SocMed has been promising to write an elaborate post it.

      Delete
    2. // If you have the time and inclination to anonymize and summarize what the teacher had to say, and put it up in your blog, it would be good. It is exactly the kind of thing ('thick description' !) that is rare.

      No. Not. Have written to you as to why.

      // I should probably write a post about it to disabuse anyone of the impressions that AKR's recommendations come from a sincere place. But I'm lazing about it, because someone more capable and more widely followed on SocMed has been promising to write an elaborate post it.

      Have drafted a semi-formed post on AKRajan and how bad a scum he is. Am awaiting some details to complete it. He is fun, the imbecile.

      In any case, do let me know about this mcamwf guy/gal - the essay/post, I mean.

      //PAKman

      Will read it, eventually. The thing is, life is increasingly getting reduced to tl;dr

      (applicable to even my own posts, which means the readership is reduced to 0.5 or thereabouts actually)

      Delete
    3. /mcamwf/
      Here you go: https://realitycheck.wordpress.com/2021/04/14/ak-rajan-book-on-dravidian-priests/

      I made some comments there. I kinda wanted to expand it - in Tamil.
      And add some points about the fundamental misunderstanding asking questions along the lines of:
      தமிழ்ல ஏதுய்யா மந்திரம்? 'போற்றி' ன்னு மொழிபெயர்த்துட்டா மந்திரம் ஆயிடுமா. பக்தி இலக்கியம்லாம் இருக்கு, ஆனா அது வேறய்யா.

      Delete
  2. Thank you for sharing such content. Please keep sharing. For NEET Counselling click here.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you for sharing this thought-provoking post! The suggestion of a framework for analyzing data is incredibly useful. As I delve into my NEET exam preparation, I've been contemplating effective study strategies. Considering the complexity of the exam, I've been exploring options for Neet coaching in chennai to enhance my analytical skills and approach. Your insights are valuable, and I appreciate the guidance provided in your blog. It adds a new perspective to my preparation journey. Looking forward to more enlightening content!

    ReplyDelete

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