BENGALURU: The decision to cap medical seats has been put on hold after some states pointed out several issues on the matter, said Union Coal, Mines and Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi on Saturday. The government understands that there is a need for more doctors in the country. Over 1,50,000 medical seats will be made available in India by 2029, he said at the national conference organised by COMED-K CARE and the Education Promotion Society for India (EPSI) on the theme ‘Making Indian Higher Education Globally Competitive’.
“This will help poor children from the marginalised sector become doctors. In 2014, only 51,000 medical seats were available, but now the number has gradually increased to 1,10,000 seats. There has been an increase of 96% in medical seats since 2014. The capping of seats was a recommendation of the National Medical Commission (NMC) and not the decision of the government. It has been kept on hold now,” the minister emphasised.
Joshi added that there was a need to upgrade the education system and that there was a requirement to upskill the youth. “For that to happen we need more investments from the private and government sectors,” he said.
Medical Education Minister, Dr Sharan Prakash Patil also said upskilling and reskilling are the need of the hour. He added that every year not all engineering graduates in the state get jobs. The main reason for this is the lack of skill among students. “We have devised many plans to fill this. The gross enrolment is quite low in higher education in Karnataka. Despite over one lakh graduating engineering students, we have only some getting placed. That is what we need to focus on. We are looking at starting a skill university and promoting skilling courses that will provide more job opportunities,” Dr Patil explained.
All India Technical Education Council president Dr T G Sitaram said, “We have brought a change in technical education. We have revised textbooks and made them available in 13 languages.” Dr MR Jayaram, President of Gokul Education Institute, was elected as the new president of EPSI.