Telangana private colleges beaten at National Eligibility cum Entrance Test

Visakhapatnam: Contrary to the popular trend, students from government medical colleges in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have managed to bag the most ranks in the 'National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Neet) Post Graduate results  which were announced two days back. Students from private medical colleges were left much behind their counterparts from the government institutions.

According to available details, T. Vyshnavi of Andhra Medical College topped from AP and Telangana bagging the 81st rank in the NEET-PG, followed by Malla Devi Vinaya the 184th rank and G. Mamatha the 213th. K. Sahitya from the Gandhi Medical College got the 451st rank.

Medical fraternity attributed the shift in the results to the revised Neet pattern which focused on clinical expertise and application rather than plain academics as earlier. This was not the case with the earlier state-level PG medicine entrance examinations where students from private colleges claimed a fair share of seats. Even, there were some incidents of paper leakage and allegations of fraudulent practices at state-level examinations. Some educationalist said that the Neet-PG results highlighted the alleged poor clinical training at some private colleges at the graduate level.

Vice-Principal of Andhra Medical College, Dr. P.V. Sudhakar, said that it was time for private colleges to introspect and review the training they offer to medicos. "The cream of students will obviously join the government medical colleges at the graduate level. Government institutions have retained their supremacy in the Neet PG because of their careful grooming of medicos. With their exposure to a variety of medical cases during their training at government colleges, these students will get a head start," Dr. Sudhakar added.

In 2016, the Supreme Court revived the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) as a single, nationwide basis for admissions to the undergraduate and postgraduate medical courses across the country. Indian Medical Association Students Wing-Andhra Pradesh president Dr. Kaduru Lakshmi Narayana explained how the NEET-PG will differ from the state-level PG medical entrances.

"Planned on the lines of AIIMS and JIPMER, the NEET-PG is a clinical application-based entrance test. Students at the government medical colleges will have an exposure to even rare medical cases during their training. They are groomed ready to handle any critical case by the time they are relieved from their graduation in medicine," said Dr. Lakshmi Narayana.