AP wants Centre to put off national medical entrance for 2 yrs

Updated on: Friday, November 11, 2011

More than a year after it agreed to having National Eligibility-cum Entrance Test for admission to MBBS course, Andhra Pradesh has now requested the Centre to exempt the state for next two years.

Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy wrote a letter to Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in this regard on October 31, officials sources said today. The state has also filed a petition in the Supreme Court on the issue, they said.

In the letter, Kiran said exemption would help the state make necessary changes to intermediate curriculum from 2012-13 academic year, and also give sufficient time to students to prepare for NEET in 2014.

Reddy said the state had, in October 2010, agreed to the holding NEET, but there were three "important concerns".

Amendments were required to the existing state laws, and the curriculum of the State Board would have to be revised after the curriculum for the test was notified by the Centre.

"Presently, students are following the state curriculum. Engineering, Agriculture and Medicine Common Entrance Test ranking is based on 25 per cent weightage to marks secured in Intermediate examination and 75 per cent to marks in EAMCET.

"This makes the students concentrate on Intermediate course, apart from preparation for entrance test. The batch of students joining in the year 2012-13 would complete the Intermediate course by April 14 and it would be appropriate for them to appear for NEET in 2014 as they would have studied Intermediate as per the revised curriculum," letter said.

"Also, question papers for EAMCET are printed in Telugu and English...in the NEET, question papers would be in English and Hindi. A vast majority of students of the state who study Intermediate in Telugu medium would be subjected to a severe handicap if they do not have the benefit of the question paper in Telugu," the Chief Minister has said.

He also pointed out that the state does not participate in Central pool in which 15 per cent of undergraduate seats and 50 per cent of post-graduate seats are earmarked for students of other states.

"As a result, for a vast majority of students the choice is limited, to medical colleges in the state only. A number of meritorious students from the state do qualify for admission to institutions like AIIMS, JIPMER, etc. I understand that these institutions will continue to have their separate entrance tests. Therefore, there may not be much relief in terms of reduction in number of entrance tests students of AP have to take," the Chief Minister noted.

AP wants Centre to put off national medical entrance for 2 yrs

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