After the Supreme Court made the National Eligibility Entrance Test (Neet) mandatory for MBBS and BDS admissions from this year, the Central government promulgated an ordinance to exclude state government-controlled medical seats from the ambit of NEET for one year. This ordinance has, however, provided only temporary relief in the present crisis over medical education. A permanent solution should be found to reduce the number of entrance exams, to eliminate the capitation fee menace, ensure meritorious admis-sions and to protect the states’ rights in medical education.
More than 15 states had opposed Neet being imposed for their medical seats. They said Neet will be held on the basis of the CBSE syllabus and will disadvantage their students who studied in their mother tongue and on the basis of the state board syllabus. India has over 412 medical colleges, which have 52,700 MBBS medical seats. Private colleges are more in number. The 222 private colleges have 26,835 seats, with around half the seats being surrendered to the state governments. The remaining seats and all seats of private deemed universities are filled by private institutions.
It is believed large-scale irregularities and malpractices are taking place in admissions to these institutions. Capitation fees ranging from Rs 60 lakh to Rs 1 crore for the undergraduate seats and between Rs 1 crore and Rs 3 crore for postgraduate seats are said to be collected. These seats have been virtually reserved for millionaires. The only merit here is money.
More than Rs 20,000 crore is being collected by private medical institutions annually through the UG and PG medical admissions. Apart from that, students are also often cheated. Without getting recognition from the Medical Council of India (MCI), private medical colleges are allowing admissions by giving false hope to students that they would get recognition soon or through court action. Having paid huge sums in capitation fees, after joining the course, students are unable to complete their courses due to non-availability of recognition from the MCI.
To solve such problems, formulating a new policy for medical admissions is the need of the hour. The Neet will help solve these issues to a certain extent, but it will not solve all problems. The Centre and state governments alone should have the power to admit students. No other institution should be allowed to admit students directly.
It is being said the purpose of Neet is to reduce the number of entrance examinations, to curb the capita-tion fee menace and to ensure meritorious admissions. The aims could not be achieved fully with Neet in its present form, but it would certainly help to reduce the evils.
NEET or CET?
Neet requires having a minimum eligibility mark. When there are fewer seats and the number of aspirants is more than that, there is a need to conduct a Common Entrance Test. But there is no need to have minimum eligibility in that test. The minimum eligibility for MBBS admissions is a pass in plus-two with 60 per cent marks in science subjects. Apart from that, fixing a minimum eligibility again in CET may harm the cause of social justice and reservations. Therefore, NEET should be converted to CET.
National-level CET for whom?
The Centre should conduct a CET for admissions in:
Central government seats (all seven AIIMS, JIPMER, AFMC and other Central institutes)
All-India quota seats
Management seats of private medical colleges
All the seats of private deemed universities
Students from all over the country are eligible to apply for these seats, of which there are more than 20,000. At present, students are made to appear for more than 90 entrance tests for these seats.
It gives unnecessary physical and mental stress, and is an economic burden for the students.
It is not possible to appear in all these tests in a short period. So conducting a single national-level CET for these seats is the need of the hour.
States like Tamil Nadu should not demand that the Centre scrap the national-level entrance test totally. Opposing Neet will only help the private institutions.
At the same time, the Centre should not impose Neet on state government-controlled UG, PG and super-speciality medical seats to protect the states’ rights and the federal fabric of our country. Since health is a state subject, curbing the states’ rights in medical education would adversely affect the healthcare system of states.
Some suggestions
The Centre should conduct a CET and it should admit the students directly through a single-window system according to the ranks obtained by candidates in CET.
It could effectively curb the menace of capitation fees and irregularities in admissions. Just conducting CET and handing over the marks to the private institutions will not solve the problem.
CET should be conducted in all 22 languages, those included in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution.
Fees for the private medical seats must be fixed by the government.
Tuition fees for SCs, STs and economically weaker sections must be paid by the government.
The Centre should bring in necessary amendments to the Constitution and laws to solve the problems of appearing in so many CETs, collecting capitation fee, irregularities and non-meritorious admissions in medical colleges across the country, and to protect the rights of the states in medical education.
