Let NEET be the gold standard

The Supreme Court’s brief order on Friday prohibiting private colleges and deemed universities from conducting their own undergraduate medical and dental entrance tests is to make them fall in line with the higher objective of upholding the supremacy of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). The first phase of NEET 2016 has already been held (May 1) and the modalities of holding the second phase on July 24 are being worked out. Meanwhile, the private colleges, which will be most affected by a common national entrance test for medical courses, have been raising an issue about their constitutional right to establish and administer their own institutions. Their objections seem to be based on the fear that they will lose total control over admission procedures, which would mean their very way of operating would be hit, besides ending the long running capitation fee racket. The lead judge was categorical: “We have already said this. One: There shall be NEET. Two: No private colleges or associations will be permitted to have their own exams. Three: States will be allowed to conduct their exams after we consider what the solicitor-general has to say on it.”

Only by establishing a gold standard and maintaining it can the fair expectation that health be handled by the most competent brains and hands be fulfilled. The top court’s aim is to give every aspiring doctor and dentist an opportunity to get a prized opening to qualify and serve as one of around 50,000 medical professionals who qualify each year, towards which a single national test would help as it would facilitate picking the best brains for an essential profession. This can be achieved only when the states also channel their students to excel at the national test rather than keep promoting their own entrance tests, even if they have some very good reasons. The court has so far upheld the right of states to hold their entrance exams, but then there are also states like Tamil Nadu which do not wish to hold such a test at all on the premise that rural students are disadvantaged in a merit-first system with reservations only for SC/ST students.

There are several knotty issues to be resolved. The Supreme Court may be inclined to exempt states from NEET 2016 because of paucity of time with the matter coming up so late and only after an earlier key order was recalled. It would be in the interest of all students if the top court were to pass final orders soon. The manner in which elite engineering institutions, like the IITs, have cherry-picked aspirants in objective tests may also be said to have been the motive force behind their exalted position in academia. Nothing untoward will happen if all political and other considerations are set aside and NEET is allowed to set the benchmark.