The Hindu : Front Page : MCI move to benefit State students

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Saturday, Jul 11, 2009
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MCI move to benefit State students

K.P.M. Basheer

Proposal to conduct common entrance test for all medical colleges

KOCHI: The Medical Council of India’s (MCI) plan to hold a common entrance test for all the medical colleges in the country will benefit students from Kerala in that they will get access to national-level institutions.

According to Babu Sebastian, director, State Institute of Educational Technology, such a test would give Kerala students entry to top-level national medical colleges that offer quality medical education. It would also improve the quality of future medical personnel as only those with real aptitude for a medical career would enter the profession.

The MCI, which is tasked with the maintenance of uniform standards of medical education in the country, had a fortnight ago decided to introduce a common entrance examination for all the roughly 300 medical colleges in India, in both private and government sectors, starting from next year. This was on a suggestion by the Supreme Court. The MCI had set up an expert committee to study the suggestion. The committee—all the three members were retired heads of medical colleges—recommended an all-India entrance test whose outcome would be binding on all the private and government medical colleges. It also wanted the Central government to set up an authority to conduct the entrance test. The MCI accepted the recommendation and has now forwarded it to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry.

Advantages

Dr. Sebastian told The Hindu that the all-India test would make admissions to medical courses transparent and would eliminate room for corruption and capitation fee. For Kerala students, Dr. Sebastian said, the test would open up the opportunities to study in reputed institutions in other parts of the country. As of now, very few Keralites were able to get into such institutions. One great advantage for the students would be that they would have to take only one test instead of the several now. In the current system, students take an all-India medical entrance examination for admission to Central government-run institutions, State entrance examinations in different States and the tests conducted by some private medical colleges.

The all-India test will also be applicable to homoeo, Ayurveda and Sidha colleges which are registered with the MCI.

However, the nursing degree (B.Sc. Nursing) will be out of the purview of it; there will be separate State-level entrance test for nursing and other paramedical courses.

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