Rise and fall of NEET

---

Medical education is India is one of the largest in the world with more than 300 medical colleges (including both government sector and private sector medical colleges) with annual intake of more than 32,000 medical students who add to the existing medical manpower ¹, however, it is marred by multiple issues including but not limited to, lack of ongoing reforms ¹, no impetus on quality clinical research ^2,3 and frequent strikes by in-training residents ^4,5, all of  which by themselves contribute to compromise in effective health care delivery ^6,7. Rise and fall of NEET is another such story.

Medical colleges in India are primarily either managed by government sector or private sector. However, private sector has always been under fire for allowing admission by charging heavy fee under name of capitation fee. Moreover, students had to write separate exams for government and private sector medical colleges, as a result students had to apply for different exams and travel all across country to appear for those exams which imposed several limitations of people especially from poor financial background. Medical Council of India in 2010 decided to start NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test), a nationwide central exam for all medical colleges of India in an attempt to bring uniformity across different exams. It was implemented in 2012 with first exam conducted last year. However, it did not last long and after a long legal battle between MCI and representative of private medical college in the highest court of India, the exam was finally scrapped in July 2013.

While MCI has always been condemned for not bringing reforms to medical education in India, its attempt to standardize entrance exam all across nation was thrashed by the apex court. Still a lot needs to be done in order to raise standard of medical education including more impetus on clinical and practical training, standardizing training of residents by collaborating MD-DNB programs ^8,9. However, these changes would need stringent joint efforts by bureaucrats at different levels before medical education standards can be improved in India.

Reference(s)

---

1. Aggarwal S, Sharma V. The problems of medical education in a developing country: The case of India. Ann Trop Med Public Health 2012;5:627-9
2. Aggarwal S, Singh H, Bansal P, Goyal A, Saminder Singh K. Training in clinical research in India. Indian J Community Med. 2010;35:446
3. Aggarwal S. Research oriented medical education in India. Indian J Med Res.2010;131:590.
4. Sharma V, Aggarwal S. Residents' strikes on policy issues. Indian J Med Ethics 2009;6:45-6
5. Aggarwal S, Yadav R, Singh H, Sharma A, Sharma V. Analysis of physicians' strikes and their impact. Indian J Med Ethics. 2012 Jul-Sep;9(3):217-8
6. Aggarwal S, Sharma A, Sharma R. Seeking a better inter disciplinary cooperation. Indian J Med Ethics. 2010;7:180
7. Aggarwal S, Sharma V. Worsening doctor ­patient relations: Time to Act. Chron Young Sci 2011;2:115
8. Sharma V, Aggarwal S. Do we need two systems for postgraduate medical education in one country? Indian J Med Ethics.
9. Aggarwal S. Comment on medical education. J Postgrad Med 2009;55:318-9

Source(s) of Funding

---

No source of funding needed

Competing Interests

---

No competing interests.

Disclaimer

---

This article has been downloaded from WebmedCentral. With our unique author driven post publication peer review, contents posted on this web portal do not undergo any prepublication peer or editorial review. It is completely the responsibility of the authors to ensure not only scientific and ethical standards of the manuscript but also its grammatical accuracy. Authors must ensure that they obtain all the necessary permissions before submitting any information that requires obtaining a consent or approval from a third party. Authors should also ensure not to submit any information which they do not have the copyright of or of which they have transferred the copyrights to a third party.
Contents on WebmedCentral are purely for biomedical researchers and scientists. They are not meant to cater to the needs of an individual patient. The web portal or any content(s) therein is neither designed to support, nor replace, the relationship that exists between a patient/site visitor and his/her physician. Your use of the WebmedCentral site and its contents is entirely at your own risk. We do not take any responsibility for any harm that you may suffer or inflict on a third person by following the contents of this website.