Parents supporting NEET to meet next week, will appeal to ministry
On July 23, parents from across the state will meet in the city to back the central government's decision to hold a single entrance exam for admission to medical colleges.
The board of governors of the Medical Council of India (MCI) will also meet to discuss the modalities of a review petition that is likely to be filed in the Supreme Court.
The SC on Thursday quashed the single-window National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) dealing a body blow to uniform admission norms for MBBS, BDS and MD seats in all medical colleges and allowing private medical colleagues to frame their own admissions norms and charge, in many cases, stiff capitation fees.
On Thursday, a three-judge SC bench, by a 2:1 majority, struck down the single-window National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) as unconstitutional and held that the MCI notification on holding a single entrance test was ultra vires of the Constitution and that the council
was not empowered to prescribe all-India medical entrance tests.
"We feel the NEET served a purpose and it was a decision that benefitted several students who were not required to travel across India to take multiple tests," said Vivek Korde, founder-president, Forum Against Commercialization of Education. The forum will be holding a meeting of parents at Nana Chowk on July 23, the minutes of which will be sent to the ministry. "Several parents feel that the SC decision to scrap the NEET is unjust.
There is a single exam to join any American university, why should India have so many exams?
We want to hear more voices from medical aspirants, hence, the meeting," said Korde.
But coaching classes , on the other hand, presented a different side.
"On the other hand, Students sitting for five or six exams have to undergo exam pressure these many times," said Sanjay Sinhal, MD, Sinhal Classes in Mumbai.
Sinhal said coaching institutes and medical colleges stood to benefit from multiple tests. "A system of multiple testing will create more confusion... and to be frank coaching institutes thrive on students' ambiguity." Many tests will make the admission processes sluggish, but will also allow colleges to sell at high prices vacant seats that arise when students move to colleges of their choice, he added.
But multiple tests also allow students the option to take another test instead of waiting for a year to give the NEET again, said Parijat Mishra, career counsellor, Allen Career Institute in Kota, Rajasthan.