The Common Medical Entrance Exam Debacle

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“Tring Tring!!!!” the bell rings. The girl jumps up from her seat and rushes with her answer sheet to the invigilator, hands it over to him and rushes out of the class and searches frantically for her parents. She spots her mother waving her hand standing beside her car under a tree. Her father has already started the engine and she makes her way to the car and they all start. Inside she has small refreshment and then takes out her books and start studying.

The scene is after the completion of a medical entrance exam by the girl. The exam was meant for admission to a well reputed medical college in Chennai. But where is she rushing after her exams and why is she studying again after the exam. The reason is simple; the exam she undertook was just one among many entrance exams to various universities and medical colleges. This exam was over by 12pm and she rushed because she had another one at 3pm for a different university to be held at a centre 50km away. But she can’t even rest after that because there is another one the next day.

Facts And Figures

There are around 300 medical colleges in the country and around 2 lakh aspirants for the course from the country each year. Now almost each college or university has its own admission exams and this has put the students and their parents in a state of turmoil. There is no guarantee that a student will get qualified for admission to any one particular college so they are obliged to write all the entrance exams so their names might figure on the selected list in any of the above mentioned 300 or more colleges.

It is really a daunting issue as far as the students and parents are concerned because some exams might be tough and some simple, some may be too expensive because the centre may be too far from their homes and the application forms for the exam might be too costly. Now finally the Supreme Court Of India has decided to put an end to this situation after hearing to a plea made by The Medical Council Of India (MCI). After a careful study the MCI has put forward a suggestion that there should be a single eligibility cum admission test to all colleges for various medical courses as this would reduce the stress on the students. The study was conducted by a panel set up by the health ministry to run the Medical Council of India.

As per an article in Times of India, President of the panel Dr S K Sarin was quoted as saying, “A common entrance will reduce hassles for students appearing for multiple medical exams. The health ministry is supportive of the idea.”
The Supreme Court completely felt that the suggestion of the MCI was genuine and directed the Government to act as per the recommendation of the MCI. So from the next academic year onwards there will be just a single exam to get admission to any medical college in India.
What the Panel Says
As per the panel, there will be a single qualifying exam wherein all students wishing to join medical courses must attend. The students can apply separately to the colleges they wish to study in the order of their preference but the admission will be strictly made out of the scores they obtain in the Common admission test i.e they have to score high if they want to study at the college of their choice.
The decisions made will not in any means affect the availability of seats but will change the way in which seats are filled. Even the reservation quota seats will be allotted based on the students score in this common exam. That is if the management of a college has hold to 25% of the seats then they cannot allot these seats to any arbitrary person as they wish but rather allot them on the basis of merit and marks the student scores in the common entrance exam.
Currently in all government medical colleges , it is the CBSE that is responsible for conducting the test for admission to 15% seats at the undergraduate level. But according to the new proposal this criterion will be extended to all the seats and the CBSE is more than willing to comply with this decision and so is the Union health ministry which has already given the clearance for this months ago.

Do We Need It??

Now the question arises. What will be the reaction of the colleges and students? Will they accept thedecision?

The college managements are expected to raise their concerns as this process will mean changing their entire admission schemes and framework. Also their financial implications are a cause to worry but according to reports from the panel majority of the medical college managements are in favor of the decision and have come out with their whole-hearted supported for the decisions of the panel.

Final Verdict

The decision for a single qualifying and evaluation exam has created quite a stir now as the entire admissionprotocols and policies followed at present will have to undergo restructuring and that too at a very fast pace as the new academic year is fast approaching and there are many hurdles in both legal and official terms that have to be cleared in order for the examination scheme to kick off. However whether the new practice will be a success or not can only be determined after it has been implemented.

 
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3 Responses to “The Common Medical Entrance Exam Debacle”

  1. 3
    arvind bhardwaj: On July 6th, 2011

    plz tell me about confirm that .common medical exam held from 2012 or not

  2. 2
    sandeep yadav: On May 23rd, 2011

    what will be the eligibility criteria for the common medical entrance exam 2012?

  3. 1
    moumita: On May 23rd, 2011

    yes the new common medical entrance test b implemented from this year onwards?then from where will we b getting details for this exam on net?

 







 
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