Reducing NEET PG percentile will cut seat wastage, claims govt

Reducing NEET PG percentile will cut seat wastage, claims govt 

Experts are sceptical that lowering the NEET PG cut-off to zero will negatively impact the quality of doctors 

Sonal.Srivastava@timesgroup.com 

To ensure that no PG medical seats remain vacant, the health ministry, in a one-time measure, recently reduced the NEET PG cut-off to zero across categories. The move would reduce the wastage of PG seats and democratise postgraduate medical education in India. However, continuous monitoring and competency assessments must be adopted to maintain the quality of PG education, say experts. A level playing field A health ministry official on condition of anonymity highlights the problem of PG seats remaining vacant. “As many as 3,000 seats remained vacant last year, despite the reduction of 20 percentile in the cut-off. To reduce the wastage of seats, the government reduced the percentile to zero.” “However, this does not mean that students with zero percentile can directly go to a medical college and get a seat. 

The allotment will be done in a centralised manner and only those with higher percentiles will get seats in premier institutions. Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) will be holding counselling sessions for all India quotas, while the stategovernment will hold the counselling of state quota,” added the source. NEET PG is more of a grading exam rather than a qualifying exam. “All students have completed their MBBS and are examining patients; they are all eligible. Getting a PG seat does not guarantee becoming a specialist overnight; they will have to study for a couple of years and then clear the National Exit Test (NExT) to specialise in a stream,” said the source. 

The directive will democratise medical education by allowing a diverse group of aspiring doctors to get a PG degree. “This inclusivity is important in a diverse country that demands candidates from various backgrounds and regions aspire to become specialists. Also, by widening the pool of eligible candidates, we can channel more doctors into underserved areas, thereby improving healthcare across the country. The reduction of the cutoff can alleviate the immense stress and pressure associated with achieving high scores. There is already intense competition in medical entrance exams and lowering the cut-off could contribute to a healthier, more balanced approach to medical education,” says Dr Somashekhar SP, chairman -Medical Advisory Board, Aster DM Healthcare GCC & India. Institutions must implement comprehensive assessments and evaluations throughout the PG training period.

 To maintain quality, continuous monitoring and competency assessments are vital to ensure that students, regardless of their NEET PG score, are adequately prepared to meet the standards expected of medical professionals, adds Dr Somashekhar. Compromising merit Experts are sceptical; they say that lowering the NEET PG cut-off to zero may impact the quality of doctors in India, In 2023, the NEET PG cut-off percentile was 50 for students from the general category, 45 for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), and 40 for students from other reserved categories. Lowering the cut-off to zero has been welcomed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) which demanded a 30% cut-off percentile in September 2023 citing the Covid-induced struggle faced by medical graduates, but other medical associations like the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) have opposed the move. Dr Rishiraj Sinha, national executive member, FAIMA, calls the reduction of the percentile to zero a ‘murder of merit.’ He says private medical colleges will benefit from the move and students will find it difficult to afford PG medical education in India.

 “Those who have worked hard to get a PG seat are frustrated as candidates with negative percentile will also join them in the classrooms,” adds Sinha. PG medical education can be slightly expensive in India, forcing many students who may have scored a comparatively higher percentile to pursue medical education in countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan among others. “At a time when we are asking other countries to teach according to Indian standards, reducing the percentile to zero reeks of hypo crisy,” says Anuj Goyal, cofounder,  explaining that the fees of clinical seats in PG in deemed universities in some states is Rs 80 lakh to Rs 1 crore per year, which roughly translates to Rs 2.5 crore for three years and it is a considerable amount for students to cough up, hence seats remain vacant even in the clinical courses in some deemed universities.

 After the reduction of the cut-off, the students with deep pockets will be able to buy such seats. “It may result in a student with a low percentile being inducted into the medical education system while a high-merit candidate may not be able to afford it. This will aggravate the fight between merit and means,” says Goyal.