State not keen on NEET: PK Abdu Rabb

Thiruvananthapuram: The state government is unhappy with the Supreme Court’s order to conduct National Eligibility cum Entrance Examinations (NEET) for MBBS and BDS in two phases for the academic year 2016-17. Education minister P.K. Abdu Rabb told reporters that the state government was not in favour of a common test. However, the education department was only responsible for conducting the entrance examinations.

It was for the health department to take a decision on the common test, Mr Rabb added. With the decision of the Supreme Court to make admissions to MBBS and BDS in medical colleges and dental colleges from the state with NEET, the medical entrance examinations conducted by the Commissioner for Ent-rance Examinations  (CEE) has become irrelevant. The admissions for BHMS, BAMS, BUMS,BSMS,BSc (Hons.) Agri, BFSc., BSc. (Hons.),Forestry and BVSc. and AH however, will be from the state entrance rank list.

One of the apprehensions was related to the NEET results which are scheduled to be announced only on August 17. There are doubts being raised on whether it would be possible to complete the admission process by September 30, the deadline fixed by the SC to complete the admissions process.

There was a feeling that  common entrance examinations was advantageous to students who otherwise would have to attend multiple entrance examinations in the country having nearly 70,000 seats for MBBS and 21,000 seats for MD with every state government, many private medical college associations, deemed universities and minority institutes and other reputed institutions conducting their own common test.  

The only problem with NEET is that the test for this year was being conducted after many states had already initiated steps for making admissions for medical courses.