CBSE to hold all-India medical CET from 2012

From Sanjiv Dube NEW DELHI : From next year the CBSE will hold an all India common entrance test (CET) for all medical colleges and deemed universities in the country. The first test will be conducted in May 2012. The MCI has put up draft syllabus of the proposed test prepared by the National Council of Education, Research and Training (NCERT) inviting comments from state-holders. It will be up on the MCI website for comments till August 11. The decision to hold the proposed test was taken at top-level meeting on July 18 presided over by Union Health Secretary K Chandramouli. It was attended by officials of MCI and CBSE. The test will have the backing of the Ministry of Health and the Medical Council of India (MCI) and would include all private and government medical colleges in the country. There are about 300 medical colleges in the country out of which about 180 are private. Approximately 8 lakh students take UG medical entrance tests every year but they sit for different tests, including the All India PMT conducted by the CBSE and various statelevel medical entrance tests. According to the latest decision the CBSE will hold one, allencompassing admission test for all medical colleges in the country. MCI board member Dr Purushottam Lal told reporters on July 19 that the MCI will prepare the course structure for the test and put it on the website for comments of people. The decision, he said, came in the wake of the Supreme Court orders to the MCI to go ahead with one test for UG medical admissions to avoid stress to students. One test will ensure quality students entering medical education because states would be obliged to fill seats in their respective jurisdictions with students who figure in the All-India merit list. They would be free to prefer students from their areas but they wont be able to compromise on merit. Earlier Tamil Nadu had opposed the move and secured a stay on it from the High Court. The Health Ministry subsequently asked the MCI to withdraw the common entrance test notification but the Supreme Court told the MCI to go ahead. At the latest meeting which Health Secretary attended, the view was that state governments would be roped in to build a consensus on the matter. Though there were suggestions to bring super-specialty institutions like AIIMS under the ambit of the proposed common admission test, no concrete decision was taken in this regard. The participants decided to have further discussion in the matter.

SC tells MCI to hold entry test for UG, PG coursee

From Our Correspondent NEW DELHI : On March 7 the Supreme Court ordered the Central government to hold a single eligibility-cum-entrance examination for MBBS and post-graduate medical courses in the country from this academic session.

Passing the order a bench of justices R V Raveendran and A K Patnaik said that the admission test will be applicable country-wide, including private medical colleges, except the state of Tamil Nadu where Madras High Court has granted injunction against the common admission test. The Madras High Court has stayed the applicability of the MCIs December 27, 2010 notification on the ground that the state has its own law on the subject and that the legislation has been approved by the President. The Medical Council of India (MCI) had, last October, sought the apex court's permission to hold a single common entrance test for graduate and post-graduate medical courses, including those for the private and minority medical colleges. The bench said that since the MCI, the apex regulator for medical education and training has already issued two notifications for single entrance test for graduate (MBBS) and post-graduate (MD/MS) admissions respectively, it was open to the MCI to enforce its orders. "The pendency of the notifications will not come in the way of putting in place the system of single entrance test as government counsel earlier had submitted that the Centre had given its approval to the scheme," the court ruled. The apex court rejected the plea of counsel for several medical institutions, especially those from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh that even the governments of these states had reservation on the single test scheme. The bench said so far nobody had challenged the MCI notifications before the court. After rejecting their plea, the bench in a formal order directed the Centre to notify an organisation for conducting the single test. The Supreme Court, while noting that that Solicitor-General, Mr Gopal Subramaniam, on February 18 had made a statement that the Health Ministry has not granted its approval for the test, the bench said : We fail to understand why they (MCI) need government approval. Nothing more is required to be done by the MCI after it has issued the two notifications as everyone has to follow it, the apex court said, clarifying that the MCI, as the apex regulator for medical education, is competent to act independent of the government on the issue. Refusing to grant any relief to the CBSE counsel Altaf Ahmed who said that the board has been named as a body for conducting the test for MBBS admissions, the bench said, You can give your proposal to the government but we will not pass any order. The Centre had on December 27 last year, notified that there would be a combined entrance test for MBBS and PG courses. Although the court had, in an interim order on December 18 last year, allowed the MCI to go ahead with the CET, it had decided to hear the various stakeholders. The state governments, private medical colleges and those run by the minorities were invited to discuss their objections and grievances. Senior advocate Amrender Sharan and Somesh Jha, appearing for the MCI, pointed out that the Centre had on August 13, last year, taken the stand that the MCI can go ahead with the implementation of the single common entrance criteria and in December the

regulations were notified. It is (now) binding on all the colleges. It is the students who are suffering, they said. The MCI proposal said, To be eligible for admission to MBBS course for an academic year, it shall be necessary for a candidate to obtain a minimum of 50 per cent marks in each paper of the test held for the said academic year. But for those belonging to SC, ST and OBC, the minimum percentage shall be 40 per cent in each paper, and for candidates with locomotory disability of lower limbs, it will be 45%. There will be a single entrance exam each for MBBS and MD courses offered by all 271 medical colleges.

MCI follows BCI, plans a pre-practise exam

From Sanjiv Dube NEW DELHI: Taking cue from the Bar Council of India, the Medical Council of India (MCI) intends to introduce an all-India common exit test for graduate doctors. The test will entitle medical graduates to practise medicine and enter the world of medical care. Presenting the MCI case in the Supreme Court on September 17 Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam told a Bench of Justice R V Raveendran and Justice H L Gokhale that the exit test is under active consideration of the Health Ministry. Considering the varying standards of medical education in the country the MCI has proposed a common exit examination for MBBS pass-outs intending to become doctors and treat patients, Subramaniam told the Bench. The first All India Bar Examination, it may be recalled, is to be held on December 5 this year. The bench was reluctant to entertain Subramaniam and MCI counsel Amarendra Saranthe's plea on single window admission test for post-graduate medical course and refused to pass any order without hearing the opinion of the states. How can we pass any direction when there is neither notification nor the regulations before us? The state governments are required to be served with notices and they have to be heard, said the judges. The Bench said: "We do not know which all states will object to this and how the students, a volatile community, would react to this proposal. So, let the Centre put before us the proposal and we will seek the response of the state governments." Tamil Nadu government, it may be recalled, has opposed the decision to have a common entrance test for the PG admission in all the medical colleges in the country following which the Union government has filed an application before the Supreme Court seeking approval to introduce the entrance tests. Expressing their concern, the judges said a cautious approach has to be taken on the issue as students are a volatile community and there are chances that you (Centre) may land in some other problem.

Giving the Centre a week to place the proposal before it for issuance of notices to the state governments to elicit their response, the Bench said: "The courts have already contributed to a lot of problems and we do not want to contribute to this by giving a gobye to the settled procedure."

Govt move to give boost to medical education

NEW DELHI : The Health Ministry has drawn up a plan to boost medical education in the country for which it plans to make major changes in the rules, according to sources. Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has approved the proposed overhaul of medical education, including rationalising land use for setting up colleges, introducing new courses and increasing postgraduate seats by 30 per cent for specialisations. Amendments to Medical Colleges Regulations (1999) will allow medical colleges to be run in high-rises on 10 acres in metros and grade-A cities. "Since land-availability is a problem in [these cities], we've shifted to the concept of total built area required for essential infrastructure, including the medical college, hostels, hospitals, libraries, etc," Dr Ketan Desai, president, Medical Council of India (MCI) said on October 16. This means Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, for example, can open a medical college on its 15-acre campus in Delhi. "This will boost healthcare facilities in cities where existing government hospitals can no longer meet exponential growth in population," said a ministry source. There are 300 medical colleges in India that are being run by the government, trusts and societies. These colleges produce 23,000 doctors each year. "The amendments were needed as there's an acute shortage of doctors and we need at least 50,000 medical graduates each year. The MCI, however, needs to ensure it keeps out fly-by-night operators who cannot assure quality education and hands-on hospital experience," said cardiac surgeon Dr Naresh Trehan, chairman, Global Health, which has set up the 43-acre MediCity in Gurgaon. Other amendments include increasing the post-graduate student-professor ratio to 2:1 from the present 1:1. "This will add 4,000 seats to post-graduate courses," said the ministry official. www.mciindia.org