While allegations of buying questions papers of National Eligibility – cum-
Entrance Test (NEET – 2024) are under the scrutiny of the Supreme Court, a
demand to cancel the test and reform the present selection system by
introducing aptitude tests like criteria for admission to medical colleges in
India is gaining momentum.
Medical profession has become one of the most sought after careers with increasing
demand of Doctors throughout the world and opportunities to excel. In India
shrinking employment opportunities are attracting lakhs of students towards
medical education.
Nearly 22 lakhs students competed for about 60 thousands seats to be allotted on the
basis of NEET in government and private medical colleges this year.
Since medical education in private institutions and in foreign countries is quite
expensive and fraught with peculiar situations like that of COVID -19 and war
in Ukraine , majority students with limited resources work very hard to get a
ranking in the NEET and get a seat in a government medical college.
The gap between availability of seats and number of aspirants for MBBS admissions have
made the coaching for the NEET integral now and coaching centers becoming money
spinning machines for many .
A large number of cases of suicides by NEET aspirants has become a cause of concern;
more so since nearly a hundred aspirants seeking at coaching centers at Kota committed
suicides in a year , not coping to pressures.
The charges are serious this year as more than 1500 aspirants were given grace
marks and withdrawn the same after the court intervention, allegations of
buying question papers and some securing cent percent marks, despite failing in
a few subjects in plus -two exams, have been leveled.
Aspirant and their parents have approached the state High Courts and the Supreme Court drawing
their attention to several irregularities in NEET. Even the Apex Court has
asked the NTA to clear all allegations to maintain sanctity of NEET.
” The complicity of certain coaching centers in leaking the question paper cannot be ruled out as a few aspirants are claiming they had the question paper one day prior to the test”, allege
aspirants .
Although the Central government and the NTA have been refuting the charges of paper leak
and other irregularities but demand for reforming entrance test for admissions
in medical colleges is getting shrill.
Serious concern has already been raised about legitimacy of NEET since the coaching has
gained dominance in NEET selection not providing level playing field for
aspirants from the rural background and not affording high cost of coaching.
As per a data the selection of students from the rural areas has dropped from to
61.4 to 50.81percent , those from government schools from 1.12 percent to 0.6
percent and dominance of English medium school student percentage going up from
85.12 percent to 98.01 percent .
As many as 67 aspirants scored cent percent marks in NEET this year and six are
from one centre, raising serious concern and protests from the aspirants,
parents and the student’s organizations.
Principal of Shri Lal Bahadur Shashtri Medical College, Dr DK Verma said ,” It is quite
surprising 67 of NEET aspirants secured cent percent marks in the test ; since
eye brow is being raised every year on the entrance criteria, effort should be made for making it full proof.”
A former Professor of IGMC Shimla Dr RS Thakur said, “You cannot decide the merit
on the basis of a single entrance test (NEET) and selection for medical aspirants
should be on the basis of judging academic track record, aptitude test and foolproof
entrance test to provide equal opportunity to every student, during a single test
many factors can play spoilsport for many aspirants depriving him from medical education”,
he adds.
Professor Rajeevan Chandel from NIT Hamirpur says , “The NTA should give equal
opportunities to NEET students as they are holding the JEE four times a year;
the selection criteria should also be based on periodic aptitude
tests as GMAT and CAT are conducted on the basis of aptitude tests .”
Former Professor of HP University Shimla, Dr Ghanshiam Chauhan says, “The present
system of selection for professional exams like NEET and JEE are based on injected
knowledge and needs to be changed. The government should definitely find
innovative ways to test the creative abilities and aptitudes of students
instead of making them super achievers.”
Majority academicians are of the opinion the entrance to medical collages should be transparent
and require ‘competition and equality of opportunities’ for every aspirant keen
of joining medical colleges and not basing it entirely on meritocracy like
NEET.