Thiruvananthapuram: The state government has made it clear that the admissions to all medical and allied medical courses in the state will be through the National Entrance-cum- Eligibility Test (NEET).
Students who want to do medical and dental courses have to qualify in the NEET examination conducted by the CBSE. Those who qualify in the NEET from the state can choose the medical or dental seats based on the score. The state will prepare the merit list and allot the government quota seats.
Admissions to government quota seats in self- financing medical colleges would also be from this list. The admissions to self-financing medical colleges will be based on the inter se merit basis. All admissions, including management quota, should be done only on the basis of the NEET rank list. This would ensure transparency to the admission process.
Future of JEE under question
The proposal to conduct common all-India engineering entrance examinations by the AICTE has posed a question on the future of the Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE) for IIT and NIT admissions.
Former HRD minister Kapil Sibal had in 2012 attempted to make JEE the common test. However, this did not succeed as the IITs had refused to be part of the common test and insisted on an exclusive test for themselves. It is not clear whether the proposed test would cover IITs and NITs and whether the JEE would continue.
Sources said that one of the proposals before the HRD Ministry was to set up an independent body dedicated to entrance tests for higher education like the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in the United States.
Various agencies like CBSE, IITs, IIMs and AICTE conduct tests like CAT, JEE (Main), JEE (Advanced), GATE, CMAT, NEET and NET every year. The plan is to introduce a National Testing Service (NTS)to conduct all these examinations to bring in more credibility to various entrance examinations and reduce the cost, sources said.
