New Delhi: Favouring a common entrance test
for undergraduate and post-graduate courses in medical
colleges across the country, the newly-constituted Board of
Governors of MCI on Tuesday said it has approached the CBSE to work
out modalities for introduction of the system from next year.
The Board, which was reconstituted after dissolution of
the corruption-hit Medical Council of India, has already
approached private medical colleges with the proposal which in
turn have agreed to it.
"We hope to have a common entrance test by next academic
session...Next time when we meet, we will be able to announce
the dates also," S K Sarin, head of the Board, told reporters.
He said a single entrance test would substantially reduce
the stress level of the students, who, under the current
system, have to sit for seven tests for getting admission in
medical colleges.
The Board has already approached the CBSE to formulate
the details for conducting such a test, replacing all other exams
that are conducted for admission into government as well
private medical colleges in the country.
"We have already contacted the CBSE. It will decide how
to go about it, including the syllabus. The test will cover
all government, private and even minority institutions,"
Sarin said.
Admission tests are conducted yearly for nearly 32,000
undergraduate seats and 13,000 post graduate seats in medical
colleges across the country.
"This will ensure that the students are not stressed out.
Under the current system, they have appear in more than seven
entrance tests for getting admission. After the new system is
introduced, the students will have to appear in only one
test," said Devi Shetty, one of the members of the Board.
He said a minority medical institution can have minority
quota or a private college can have management quota but the
seats reserved for such quota will have to be filled up on the
basis of merit.
Shetty said the Government needs to build another 100
medical colleges to shore up medical education in the country.
"Medical education should be the domain of the health
ministry," Sarin said adding that the most pressing problem as
of now was the lack of teachers in medical colleges.
When asked whether he knew about the HRD ministry`s
proposal to conduct joint entrance tests for engineering and
medicine, he said, "we have no information about the HRD
ministry`s proposal".
The panel, Sarin said, has constituted 13 working groups
to delve into various aspects of medical education. Out of
these, two groups working on post-graduate and undergraduate
medical curriculum would submit their reports by July three.
Every weekend, top professionals are invited to debate
on the need assessment for the medical sector. The need
assessment is also being done for speciality and
super-speciality courses.
Sarin said the panel was contemplating introducing an
exit examination on the lines of that for Chartered
Accountants.
The six-member panel, which replaced the MCI, has
assessed all the colleges which had applied for
re-registration and the 15 new colleges which applied for
recognition.
The panel has also introduced a system of online
registration of all faculty members in medical colleges across
the country. "This will be done within 72 hours," Sarin said.
He said there were also efforts to make registration in
the Indian Medical Register online.
About the ongoing CBI probe into the MCI scam, he said a
team is being sent with the CBI investigators wherever they
are going.
PTI
