Tamil emerges as fourth top Indian language among medical exam test takers, while English slides

Stalin and BJP have been in a war of words over three language formula

As the three-language formula prescribed in the National Education Policy generates heat in and outside of the Parliament, a Moneycontrol analysis has found that Indian languages have become more prominent when it comes to medical exam entrances. The ratio of students opting for English as a language declined to its lowest level in three years in 2024, when over 2.41 million took the medical entrance exam.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, on March 7, asked Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin to commence engineering and medical education in the Tamil language.

“I appeal to the Tamil Nadu chief minister to start the engineering and medical education in Tamil in the state for the benefit of students,” the home minister said, commenting on the raging controversy over implementing the three-language formula in the state.

Data from the National Testing Agency shows that Tamil and some other local languages  like Bengali have gained ground over time. The number of students appearing for the medical entrance test or the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test has nearly doubled over the last five years.

While 179,857 people opted for Hindi as the primary language for NEET in 2019, this doubled to 357,908 in 2024.

Students opting to take the exam in Tamil went up from 17,101 in 2020 to 36,333 in 2024.

English still was the primary language for nearly 80 percent of students registered for the NEET exam, even as its ratio declined from 79.3 percent in 2019 to 78.6 percent in 2024.

The number of students taking the exam in Gujarati has declined from 59,395 in 2019 to 58,836 in 2024.

Odia speakers have reduced to 1,312 in 2024 from 31,490 in 2019, so have people opting to take the test in Urdu from 1,858 to 1,545.