All India Common Medical Entrance Test for MBBS and PG likely from 2011

14-8-10 NEWS : This important decision, taken by the Medical Council of India and accepted by the Union ministry of health, was conveyed to the Supreme Court on Friday (13-8-10 ) bringing huge relief to lakhs of aspiring doctors.

The ministry of health and family welfare ministry, which has approved the common entrance examination, is expected to issue a notification in this regard shortly.

The exam will, however, not guide admissions to All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, and Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, as these institutes were created by an Act of parliament.

From 2011, those who aspire to become doctors in the country will not have to worry about giving as many entrance tests as possible to get admission to a medical college, modalities of which will be finalised in the next two weeks.

The MCI has plans to set up a nationwide common entrance test (CET) for study of medicine in both government and private colleges.

Such an examination will replace the 17 medical entrance examinations currently existing in the country. As of now, a student aspiring to be a doctor has to sit for at least five to six entrance examinations to get a chance to study in a medical college.

The new CET may be in place from the 2011-12 academic session if the MCI plan gets approved. The Central Board of Secondary Education will be conducting the all-India tests, for admitting 32,000 undergraduate and 13,000 postgraduate students. “The MCI has in principle agreed for a CET at UG and PG levels in the coming years,” Shiv Kumar Sarin, chairman of the MCI board, said here on Tuesday(10-8-10).

“Once a CET is in place, it will no longer matter what economic background you come from if you have the merit. This will change the health education scenario here,” said Sarin, a professor at the G B Pant Hospital in Delhi.

Students will have to apply separately to every college in accordance with their preferences, be it AIIMS, PGI Chandigarh or a private medical college, after taking the exam. A student will need to score in order to get admissions to the colleges of choice.

The MCI proposal for a “single common national entrance” examination was sent to the Health Ministry on

June 24-2010, pointing out that Supreme Court rulings have mandated a common entrance test.

The proposal, a copy of which is with The Indian Express, states:

• There should be only one entrance exam for admission to MBBS course by all institutes across the country, which should be held in English and all scheduled languages.

• The Government should identify an authority for conducting the examination.

• The structuring should be such that it should be evaluated by a computerized mechanism to avoid manual/human interference.

• Admission to all MBBS courses in all medical institutes should be strictly made on the basis of inter se merit of the relevant applicant in the common entrance examination.

• A mechanism be evolved where a list of all students eligible in different states can be segregated from the total list of all eligible candidates. This could be used by state authorities to admit students eligible as per the admission criteria in respective state institutes.

• In institutes of All-India character including deemed universities, institutes owned and managed by the Central government, state governments, universities, local self government trusts/charitable societies and all other organizations, admissions will be based on merit obtained at the competitive national common entrance examination.

THE BACKDROP FOR THIS PROPOSAL :

In response to a petition filed by Simran Jain through advocate A D N Rao had sought a direction from the Supreme court to Medical Council of India (MCI) and the Centre for a single window system for admissions.

During hearing of the petition before a Bench comprising Justices R V Raveendran and H L Gokhale, the decision for one common entrance test was conveyed by MCI counsel and senior advocate Amarendra Saran. Additional solicitor general P P Malhotra said the government had accepted MCI’s suggestion to amend the regulation concerning admissions to medical colleges.