Medical Council of India: Can't conduct NEET this year

In the wake of Supreme Court order to go-ahead to conduct the Common Medical Entrance Test, Dr C V Bhirmanandham, Medical Council vice-chairman said that it is not be possible to hold the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) across the country this year.

As per the TOI reports, Bhirmanandham said "the council has to issue notification to conduct the common entrance test for all states. Issuing of notification even within the week will not provide adequate time to students to prepare for the exam."

Lack of uniformity in education; Students do not get time to prepare for exam

"Since there is no uniformity in education across India it may be unfair to ask students to appear for a common test which will be based on the CBSE syllabus," he added.

The country has more than 400 medical colleges in the private and government sector offering MBBS courses. An instituition like the CBSE will have to organise question papers, examination centres and human resources to conduct the exam for several lakhs of medical aspirants, Bhirmanandam said.

Besides this, the medical council need to discuss with Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, which have been opposing the regulation since the day it was introduced.

Disadvantage for rural students

Tamil Nadu, said the rural students do not have access to coaching centres hence conducting common entrance will be a disadvantage to them. While the state offers admission to medical colleges based on Class 12 marks and 69% reservation after giving 15% of the seats to the all-India quota.

Tamil Nadu had challenged the MCI's decision stating its admission process under the Tamil Nadu Regulation of Admission in Professional Courses Act, 2006 precedes the MCI regulation that mandates a common test. "We have to come to a consensus with the state and issue fresh notification before the exams in May. That looks impractical," Bhirmanandham said.

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