Monday, June 11, 2018

It’s money, not reservation that dilutes merit in med admission

Rema.Nagarajan@timesgroup.com 11.06.2018

It is not caste-based reservation but money that compromises merit in medical admissions. This is obvious from the difference of about 140 marks or close to 20 percentage points between the average NEET scores of admissions to over 39,000 government-controlled seats and those to the over 17,000 management and NRI quota seats in private colleges where fees determine admission.

TOI analysed details of nearly 57,000 students admitted to 409 colleges last year. The average NEET score of students in government-controlled seats was 448 out of 720, while the quotas under private control averaged just 306. Incidentally, the average score of students admitted under the SC quota in government colleges was 398 and the overall average for SC students in all colleges was 367 — both much higher than the overall average for privately controlled seats.

The conclusion that it is high fees that are driving this dilution of merit in private college admissions comes from looking at how fees and NEET scores are correlated (see graphic). The higher the range of fees, the lower the average NEET scores.

As a result, the NRI quota, which typically has the highest fees, has the lowest NEET scores, a mere 221 on average. The correlation between fees and NEET scores can be seen even in government colleges, some of which have started charging fees beyond the means of even middle-class families.

The average score of students in government colleges where the annual fee is less than ₹50,000, was 487, whereas for those with fees of a lakh or more, it was 372.5. 




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