The decision of the State government to make admissions to medical, agriculture, and veterinary undergraduate programmes through NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) has evoked mixed response.
After the Supreme Court directive in April 2016 that NEET would be the only qualifying test, there was uncertainty on whether the States would be conducting an entrance test or not.
Single examination
“NEET will help students to get admission through a single examination,” T.P. Sethumadhavan, educational and career consultant, said.
Admission to MBBS, BDS, Bachelor in Ayurveda, Homoeo, Siddha, Unani, BSc Agriculture, BSc Forestry, Bachelor in Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, and Fisheries Science will be through NEET scores.
Apprehension
“There is apprehension among parents and students about the probable questions of NEET and the Kerala medical-agricultural examination.
Since the syllabus is the same, there is no need for panic about the questions. But in order to succeed in NEET, students require appropriate coaching,” Mr. Sethumadhavan says.
Success in NEET depends on the scoring rate in biology questions.
Of the 180 questions, there will be 90 questions from biology and 45 questions each from physics and chemistry and the total marks will be 760.
A student who scores 90 per cent in biology and 50 per cent each in physics and chemistry may get nearly 500 marks for a better rank for medical or allied courses, he added.
With regard to agriculture and veterinary science, the Indian Council of Agriculture Research and the Veterinary Council of India used to conduct national-level entrance tests for 15 per cent of seats available under the national quota in State agricultural, veterinary, and fisheries universities. They have not yet included their selection through the NEET rank list.
Job opportunities
“By 2017, excellent employment opportunities are emerging in the agriculture and allied sectors, including e-commerce, innovation, entrepreneurship, dairying, agribusiness, and food processing sectors. Since the services sector creates more employment, it is the need of the hour for the agriculture and allied sectors to exploit the opportunities to improve the career potential.”
In other languages
Recently, the Government of India decided to conduct NEET in Hindi, Assamese, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, and Marathi.
It may facilitate students from rural areas of these States to perform better in the national-level eligibility tests.
