Parliament Clears NEET, Few Concerns Still Remain

The two major bills that were passed in Parliament on August 1 have set NEET in motion for the session 2017. The monsoon session of the Parliament made it clear that all admissions to the medical and dental courses across India will be done through the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) that will act as a single common entrance test.

The government addressed the concerns of the members present in the session and stated the pros of having a common entrance test for medical and dental colleges.

Also Read:AIADMK Requests to Abolish NEET in Lok Sabha

Have a look at the aspects that the government cleared on implementing NEET:

• It will eliminate the individual college examinations and all the medical college entrance exams will be conducted under NEET.
• It will keep a check on the multiplicity of the exams and students will not have to travel distances to appear for individual examinations.
• The exam will be based on NCERT Syllabus and state-government syllabus will also be standardized to introduce parity. CBSE will conduct the exam at under-graduate level whereas the post-graduate exam will be conducted by the national board of examination.
• The test will also be conducted in regional languages for the benefit of students studying in regional languages.
• National and state lists will be declared separately so that the states can separately work out their priorities and reservations provided to the rural candidates.
• NEET will save the students from the exploitation they face during counseling as they have to appear for multiple counseling processes and pay separately for each.
• The exam will also bring in transparency as the names of the students among whom the counseling will be conducted will be declared.

Lok Sabha gave its nod to the Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and the Dentists (Amendment) Bill, 2016, that were later passed by the Rajya Sabha by voice vote. Apart from AIADMK, most of the parties were in favor of government’s decision to implement NEET. AIADMK argued that NEET will hamper the hard work of rural students as they don’t study CBSE syllabus.

Tamil Nadu has up to 85% reservation. Trying to clear the anxiety of AIADMK, J P Nadda, Health Minister said that the government is not going to tamper with the state quota. The exam only tends to give the name, ranking, domicile and percentile of the appearing students. Awarding extra marks and offering admissions to reserved candidates is entirely up to the respective state government.

Also Read:National Medical Commission to Replace MCI

The Bills are an attempt to improve the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 and the Dentists Act, 1948 and replace the Ordinances that were presented by the government to evade the Supreme Court order for implementing NEET exam from the session 2016.

A demand to end the capitation of fees in private medical colleges was also raised by various MPs in the Rajya Sabha. They also asked for implementing existing reservation policies for underprivileged students in admission to various undergraduate and postgraduate programs.

JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav said that he is in favor of the bill but the issues like donations in private medical colleges must also be addressed. The decision regarding fees of private colleges in states will be taken by a committee that will be headed by a retired judge.

The health minister also said that the quality of medical education will not be compromised at any cost while the quantity will be increased.