The recent developments on the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) will not have much impact on the students this year and next year as well with the final decision yet to come.
Strong opposition from the minority institutions that are seeing NEET as an impediment to their autonomy may ensure that the NEET does not become a reality and even if it does, it will come with lots of restrictions that states will find a way to have their own test. Private medical college managements have filed several petitions in the Supreme Court to protect their admission autonomy. Tamil Nadu, that doesn’t conduct any entrance test, will not consider the NEET as an option at all.
The NEET at best may end up as a common entrance test for all the national medical institutions that at present conduct their own test. Even assuming that it will be implemented Andhra Pradesh and Telangana students will not gain much as long as they stay away from the national pool, from which only the two Telugu states and Jammu and Kashmir stay away due to some constitutional issues related to these states.
85 p.c. for locals
Medical and Dental admissions in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are done as per the Presidential Orders that mandate 85 per cent seats reserved for the locals of three regions - OU area, AU area an SVU area (former Telangana, Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions respectively). The remaining 15 per cent are open to students of all the three regions.
The same system continues even after the State division since the same mode of admission had to be carried out for the next 10 years as per the A.P. Reorganisation Act. The present criteria can be changed only if Article 371 (D) is amended that looks unlikely as of now.
“So not much change is expected in Telugu states,” says Mr. Kumar of the Sri Chaitanya Medical institutions that coach the medical aspirants.
National pool
But the NEET issue has again brought to the fore the issue of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana remaining out of the national pool. To compete for the national pool the states have to forego their 15 per cent seats. Many academics have been arguing that Telugu students will immensely benefit as they can stake claim for 15 per cent of national pool seats and bag the maximum given their penchant for medical courses.
At the most both the Telugu States may lose 1,800 seats to national pool but they can compete for more than 6,000 national pool seats. When Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy was the Chief Minister, an effort was made in this direction but it could not take shape due to the legal issues involved. Even the Telangana Government recently made a similar attempt but noting concrete came out of it.
Government colleges
At present there are 16 government medical colleges in AP and Telangana with AP having 1,550 MBBS seats and Telangana 850 seats in them. The numbers will vary every year as the MCI gives its final nod after inspections while new colleges also add up some seats. However, the NEET supporters see transparency coming in if all the States opt for it. Moreover, students will be spared from taking multiple tests.
