With no cut-off for individual subjects – physics, chemistry and biology—in the NEET entrance exam, at least 400 students with single-digit marks in physics and chemistry and 110 students with zero or negative marks in them have been admitted for MBBS in 2017, mostly in private colleges. This raises a question. If getting zero in these subjects doesn’t make a person ineligible for admission, why bother to test in that subject at all?
Interestingly, the original notification to adopt a common entrance examination had stipulated that students should score at least 50% in individual subjects. However, the subsequent notification, which brought in the percentile system, dropped the stipulation on marks in individual subjects.The Times of India analysed the subject marks of 1,990 students who got admitted to MBBS with NEET scores of less than 150 out of 720 in 2017. We found 530 with single-digit marks, zero or less in physics or chemistry or even both.
Rich youths with abysmal marks get into medical course
There would be many more such examples among those admitted in MBBS courses with aggregate marks above 150. Out of these 530, 507 were in private medical colleges. The average tuition fees paid by them (not including hostel, mess, library and other miscellaneous charges) were about Rs 17 lakh per annum showing how rich students with abysmal NEET marks have effectively been able to buy their way into medical colleges. NEET, promising a merit-based selection, was meant to prevent exactly this.
Source : ‘The Times of India’
