More girls cornering MBBS seats
Statistics show the situation has remained in their favour for the past decade
Over the last nine years, the number of girls getting into medical colleges, whether self-financing or government, has been equal to or higher than the number of boys. While one indicator of this should have been better performance of girls in the Standard XII examinations, perusing the statistics over the years makes it clear that more girls than boys are entering medical colleges in Tamil Nadu, and that statistics remain unshaken with NEET too.
The percentage of girls (to boys) entering MBBS courses in government medical colleges has been between 49 and 56 since 2009, and this year (2017- 2018), it was 54. Only in 2010 was it higher at 56. The performance in the self-financing side has swung between 54 and 60. Put together, these admissions allow the gender meter to rest comfortably on the female side in the last decade or so.
Change in 2 decades
“It has been like this for many years now. Maybe 40 years back, when we were students, the gender ratio would have been 70:30 in favour of the boys. However, that started gradually changing, and more girls started entering the profession. Gradually it evened out, and then in the last 15-20 years, the tide has turned in favour of girls,” says S. Mohanasundaram, former Director of Medical Education.
A senior woman professor in a government medical college explains that the tide turned in 1990s with entrance examinations, and then Standard XII marks, or sheer merit deciding the entry of candidates.
In 1990s with entrance exams, the girls were performing better. With girls having an edge over the boys in the Standard XII results, they naturally had a better chance of getting into medical colleges.
Additionally, she reminds us, came social change. “Earlier, when we were studying to be doctors, things like finding appropriate grooms for their daughters governed what kind of course the girls could take. Even if the girls performed well, their parents may not have been so keen on sending them to medical college. That seems to have changed in the 1990s,” she explains, providing the context.
However, for the years for which data was available for government school students who entered medical schools, there was no consistent pattern.
In two years, more girls from government schools secured admission to MBBS course, and in the other two years, it was boys. Also traditionally, in Tamil Nadu, the number of government school students getting MBBS has been low, less than 1 per cent.
That number crashed to an all-time low in recent years, five seats, this year.
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