Reform is always tough. Vested interests do everything to resist it and politicians often feel obliged to lend their ears to them. The case in point is the controversy over the National Eligibility and Entrance Test for admissions to medical and dental colleges. Responding to a plea from an NGO, the Supreme Court ordered that an all-India common test be held from this year itself. It overruled objections of various State Governments and the Centre.
The objective of cleaning up the scandalous mess in such admissions was far more important than any niggling problems about matching curriculums in various States and the differences of medium of instruction. The strongest objection was that NEET would be unfair to those who have schooled in a regional language. This was effectively countered by the NGO. It was pointed out that for three years when NEET was conducted in vernacular languages none of the examinees had succeeded in getting admission in a medical college anyway.
Given that most textbooks in physics, chemistry and biology are in English, and the study of these subjects is essential for anyone wanting to clear the entrance test for admission to a medical college, the regional language bit was an excuse. Besides, the Medical Council of India has made the study of English in Class XII compulsory for taking admission test for an MBBS course. But several States, including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, still wanted NEET deferred by a year.
The Centre called a meeting of the States to consider the situation. Most States vehemently opposed NEET. Since a vast majority of medical colleges are based in the relatively prosperous States of the South and West, it was not surprising that State education ministers echoed the sentiments of the private medical colleges in their regions.
Indeed, the fact that medical colleges, as also engineering colleges, are generally run by powerful regional politicians, it was not hard for them to be able to convince their respective State governments. The truth is that the capitation fee industry would come under severe attack were NEET to become the sole basis for admissions to medical and dental colleges throughout the country.
Powerful vested interests which started these colleges with an eye to earn money and acquire influence in their respective regions stand to lose out greatly if NEET is implemented. Streamlining the admission process would cut at the very roots of the corruption that is prevalent in the medical education sector. Barring a few honourable and internationally recognized government-run colleges such as the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in the national capital, admissions to which are through a rigorous all-India entrance test, there is little transparency in various privately-run medical colleges.
Consequently, the quality of instruction and the resulting alumni too leaves a lot to be desired. Rampant malpractices in the admission process in private colleges, with few honourable exceptions, of course, have made NEET absolutely essential. Such a fair and transparent entrance examination might whittle down the discretion of the founders of private colleges and thus lessen their money-making capacities but in the long run it would have a salutary effect on improving the standard of doctors churned out in their thousands by such colleges.
Meanwhile, the move to issue an ordinance to nullify the SC order has proven controversial. The President of India, probably chastened by the recent Uttarakhand experience, has sought clarifications before appending his signatures. The Centre’s plea that the SC order be deferred by a year seems suspect. It is only meant to buy time for the admissions industry.
The first phase of NEET having been already conducted, the Centre now wants the second phase to be left to the States. But it is the second phase which accounts for over 80 percent of the admissions. If each State is allowed to conduct its own admission test, the objective of cleaning up the mess would suffer. It is curious that a number of student groups too have joined the college promoters in demanding the postponement of NEET.
Quite clearly, the payers and receivers of capitation fees have common interests. Under the circumstances, it is hoped that the apex court would insist on transparency and fairness in admissions to medical colleges rather than give in to the pressures for deferment of NEET. The NGO which filed the PIL in this regard deserves to be commended.
