Government on Friday approved promulgation of an Ordinance to keep state boards out of the ambit of uniform medical entrance examination, NEET, for one academic year which is a welcome move keeping the future of students. The executive order is aimed at “partially” overturning the Supreme Court verdict which said all government colleges, deemed universities and private medical colleges would be covered under NEET. The next phase of the exam is scheduled for 24th July. Nearly 6.5 lakh students have already sat for the first phase of NEET held on 1st May. Once the Ordinance is issued, students of state government boards will not have to sit for NEET on 24th July. On 11th April, Supreme Court ordered all medical colleges, including deemed institutions, to take admissions on the basis of NEET. With this decision, institutions like AIIMS were no more permitted to conduct private entrance tests. This invoked confusion among students, who were looking forward to appearing for the medical entrance exams, and their parents. Since the syllabus of NEET is covered by CBSE and not by other state boards, students could not appear in it. At least with giving one-year respite the students would be able to prepare and there would be some standardised benchmark. We also know that multiple exams and the quality is fairly variable. This could be the only positive aspect. Another reason why NEET could have a positive effect is that it will stop colleges from conducting malpractices during admission process. Students who give the common test, they mostly have aim of getting into MBBS. If they don’t (get into MBBS), then go for BDS. If they only give exam for MBBS and not score enough, they’ll be stuck. To cut a long story short, even though NEET was declared illegal and unconstitutional by Supreme Court of India in 2013, it is the current reality for lakhs of medical aspirants in the country.
