JOIN USThe Supreme Court’s directive to the Medical Council of India (MCI) to work out a single medical entrance examination has rekindled the debate on whether such a test is necessary.
The MCI came up with the idea last year, but opposition from the Union Ministry of Health and private colleges had stalled the process. The Council will now take a final decision after a meeting with the health secretaries across the States next month, sources said.
In Karnataka, most players are adopting a wait-and-watch approach. Medical Education Minister S A Ramdas, welcoming the single entrance test, said he had raised three demands with the MCI. While favouring the current practice of providing additional weightage to rural students, he demanded that the quota for the State - 42 pc for 2010-2011 - should be continued. He said he had also suggested that minority and deemed universities should come under the purview of the All India entrance test. But the most vehement opposition to this appears to be from the religious and linguistic minority colleges.
Dattatreya from the Karnataka Religious and Linguistic Minority Colleges Association said they were opposed to any proposal that will harm the interests of the minority communities. “We are against any proposal that will not allow the minority institutions to have their own entrance test. We will certainly challenge the same, if that is the case,” he said.
He, however, added that the Association would respond fully once the draft rules were made available.
Private medical colleges are more cautious. COMED-K executive secretary S Kumar said they would study the order before deciding any action.
*Single entrance examination across the country in English and scheduled languages.
*Examination to be conducted by a single authority, possibly the CBSE.
*Multiple choice question paper to be evaluated by a computerised mechanism.
*Admissions to be made on basis of merit in the entrance examination.
*State-wise admissions to be made by segregating state-wise list from the total list of all candidates. State authorities to admit students based on their admission criteria.