The National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) for undergraduate courses aimed at reducing the number of entrance tests for students seeking admissions into MBBS courses has taken a new turn.
Several private medical colleges and deemed universities in the state have opposed the introduction of NEET as it ‘hampers the autononomy and interferes with the admission criteria for the undergraduate courses’.
The Karnataka Private Medical and Dental Colleges Association (KPMDCA) and JSS University challenged the notifications issued by the Medical Council of India (MCI) Dental Council of India (DCI) proposing to conduct the single NEET to select candidates for MBBS courses.
The Karnataka High Court stayed the notifications issued by the DCI on September 21.
In its petition, the Association stated that the curriculum followed in classes 11 and 12 in all the states across the country was different from the curriculum put forth for the NEET by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
The Association also claimed that the students and teachers were not trained sufficiently to teach the proposed syllabus.
According to private medical colleges, the proposal for a single entrance test interfered with the autonomy of the deemed universities and the apex court had granted them greater autonomy in terms of the admission process, which now is hampered with the notifications issued by Medical and Dental Councils of India.