‘Medical aspirants deserve a fair chance’
Students stage protest, feel that admission should be based on Plus Two marks
Students from various private schools held a protest outside the office of the Directorate of Medical Education on Monday demanding that medical admission should be based on Plus II marks.
Around 30 students, who had scored over 1,160 and had a cut off of 196.5 and above, said they were worried about losing to candidates who had taken a break to prepare to qualify in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test this year.
“They are playing on our weakness. We didn’t get time to prepare for NEET. We are not less intelligent or ineligible,” Joice A., an aspirant from Tiruchi, said of the candidates who have been demanding NEET-based admission.
Her Plus II marks would get her a seat but her score of 133 in NEET wouldn’t, she said.
Praveena U., a State Board student who took the NEET and wanted it to be the basis for admission, says all candidates had a “fair share of chances.”
She, along with aspirants who took the NEET this year, cited details obtained under the Right to Information Act from the Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University that showed that in the past 10 years, only a handful of students from government schools have managed to enter medical colleges.
After the State government sought permanent exemption from NEET and a group of students demanding that NEET scores be used for admission, the Supreme Court had issued a directive that the State should ensure that no candidate was affected in the process. The State government, on its part said that in that case it should be allowed to add 2,000 more seats.
‘Tough to get more seats’
But experts said that the Medical Council of India would not agree to the State’s demand for more seats. A former medical education official said there were just a few occasions, that too around 30 years ago, when the State managed to get a big haul of seats. The first time was when the State moved from pre-university course to higher secondary education, two batches of students were admitted from each of these programmes.
Around the same time, the number of postgraduate seats in paediatrics programme was doubled to mark the International Day of Paediatrics, the official recalled.
K. Senthil, president of the Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association, said, “When the State government announced a medical college in Vellore, the MCI did not give permission for over seven years. Even in 2005, when the Theni Medical College was started, the permission was denied for a year.”
The only way out for the government would be to provide weightage for NEET scores and the class 12 marks, so that toppers in both are accommodated, he said.
“Now not a single student from the State board makes it to the All India Quota. In fact, we are losing all 15% of the seats currently. If NEET is implemented, within a span of five years we will have students being admitted to those seats also,” he says.
Even if the anticipated Supreme Court verdict on Tuesday is in favour of the State government, it would be very difficult for the admission process to be completed before August 31, as stipulated by the Supreme Court.
Since the court has ruled that no student can be admitted after September 30, the State might have to appeal for an extension into September, said the former medical education official.
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