Mumbai: Students rejoice as Centre defers NEET by a year

Despite the central government issuing an ordinance allowing states to defer the National Eligibility and Entrance Test NEET by a year the shadow of the nationallevel entrance test still looms large over a section of medical aspirants seeking admission to private medical colleges this yearThe Union Cabinet has decided to bring in an ordinance to partially set aside the Supreme Court order that made NEET a mandatory uniform nationallevel common entrance test for admission to medical courses While they are happy with the decision students continue to struggle with their preparation to appear for NEETrsquos phase II in July to keep their options open for admission to private medical colleges From the next year however all admission to MBBSBDS courses will be done through NEETStudents and parents in the city celebrate the Union Cabinetrsquos decision to defer NEET by a year PICPRABHANJAN DHANUParents sayldquoIt is a good decision indeed but irrespective of it I feel students should continue their NEET phase II preparations Though it feels like the confusion has been cleared now we never know whether this ordinance will be challenged considering the complete uncertainty over this issue since the beginningrdquo said Rajiv Shah a parentAjay Gupta another parent said ldquoIt is very good news However the ambiguity still continues as it is not clear yet whether private colleges will consider CET score or not But at least the burden has been reduced to a great extent now as even for government colleges the CET stands for this academic yearrdquoBurden is a little lessSatvik Mehta a student from Vile Parle said ldquoThe main demand was to let CET continue this year Though it has been agreed to partially it is okay It is not possible to prepare for NEET in just two months but now with this decision the burden is a little less as state CET continues Next yearrsquos students will have at least a year to prepare for NEETrdquoRutvik Bhojani a Std XII student said ldquoIt has been quite chaotic this year Right now we know that NEET will be mandatory for medical admissions next year but can we be sure This year everybody knew that there will be state CET and suddenly it was scrapped Anything can happen next year toordquoAdding to this uncertainty Rujuta Devrukkar a parent said ldquoWhen my elder daughter was appearing for medical entrance they brought back state CET by cancelling NEET at the last moment now they are doing completely opposite How can we be sure that next year there wouldnrsquot be any chaos The government seems to be playing with careers of studentsrdquoComplete passDr Keyur Cholera a biology teacher from a medical entrancecoaching institute said ldquoThis is a good decision However we would have appreciated more if NEET was completely given a pass this year Now though students are getting another chance to appear for NEET by keeping their options open for admission to private colleges it is going to be two months of rigorous preparation to successfully appear for NEET This is going to exhaust studentsrdquoOfficials sayClaiming credit for the ordinance state education minister Vinod Tawde said in a press conference yesterday ldquoMaharashtra state governmentrsquos efforts have been instrumental in bringing about this change This has come as sigh of relief to lakhs of students and their parents Admission to all government medical colleges will be done through CET this yearrdquoldquoThis decision is a great respite for students from rural areas as NEET which is completely based on CBSE curriculum would have been difficult to attempt for these students from the state board Moreover several of these students who wanted to appear for the examination through regional languages have not been offered that option in NEETrdquoThe minister also revealed the state board syllabus and pattern will be tweaked with help of experts to help students appearing for NEET As per the decision admission to 2810 seats in government medical colleges will be done through state CET and admission to total 3395 seats in private as well as deemed university will be done through NEETDirector of Directorate of Medical Education and Research DMER Dr Praveen Shingare said ldquoGovernment of India cabinet has approved an ordinance to cancel NEET only for government medical and dental colleges and for this year only Though admission to government colleges will be done through CET this year admissions in private colleges will be done as per NEET merit list Next year all admissions will be based on NEET except admission to courses such as homeopathy Ayurveda Unani pharmacy etc which will be done through CETrdquo3395The number of seats in statersquos private medical collegesSankalp unhappyMeanwhile Sankalp Charitable Trust from Delhi ndash that filed a PIL for implementation of NEET mandate ndash issued a statement yesterday after the ordinance was announced The statement reads ldquoProposed ordinance is against the constitutional provisions It is encroachment on the power of judiciary The executive cannot sit as an appellant authority over the judiciary It cannot set aside the order of Supreme Court in this manner The move is antistudents antireform in the medical field and it will bring down the standard of medical education in IndiahellipWe condemn this move and appeal to all that they should rise against the proposed ordinancerdquoCM saysI told the PM that the rural students of Maharashtra were unable to prepare for the NEET in such a short time and requested him to promulgate the ordinance so that the government can prepare a new curriculum for next yearrsquos NEETDevendra FadnavisI thank the PM for postponing the NEET for a year