PG Medical Admissions: Is Zero percentile compromising merit?

Mumbai: Experts have expressed their concern as candidates scoring zero and even negative marks in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET-PG) examination have now become eligible for admission to postgraduate medical courses in India.

As per the latest media report by HT, thirteen students who secured negative marks and 14 candidates scoring zero in the PG medical entrance examination are now eligible to get admitted to PG medical courses. Raising concern in this regard, education experts have urged the government to maintain the quality of education.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) offered a major relief to the Postgraduate medical aspirants and reduced the cut-off for qualifying percentile for NEET-PG 2023 to "Zero" across all categories.

Not only in the management quota, now candidates with lower scores have also secured admission in the National Quota and the Quota for the Non-Resident Indian Students. Even those NRI quota candidates who scored only 11 marks in the exam have secured MD Pharmacy seats at an Ambala-based medical college, adds the Daily.

This was revealed after the third-round admission list was released. Commenting on the matter, the dean of a Navi Mumbai-based private medical college told Hindustan Times, “The relaxation of eligibility criteria had raised expectations that students with lower scores would have a better chance at admission to these programmes. Subjects such as anatomy, biochemistry, forensics, microbiology, preventive and social medicine, pharmacology and physiology have anyway had more vacant seats.”

However, expressing their concern over the situation, education experts pointed out that this year students scoring from 50 to 60 secured seats even in specialised fields like gynaecology and anesthesiology.

Speaking about this, a medical education counsellor, Sudha Shenoy, who filed a plea in the Supreme Court in this regard, told HT, “The government’s decision is unjust to students who studied hard to secure good scores in NEET-PG. After this decision, around 700 students applied for the NRI quota and around 390 secured admissions in the third round.”

“We are still awaiting the state allotment list. In this list too, we will surely see students with low scores secure admission in better courses, which is extremely unjust to the ones who get good scores. The government must reconsider this decision and allow only good talent to serve in the public health sector,” said a parent of a medical student.

Originally, the eligibility criterion was 50 percentile and candidates who scored 291/800 in the general category were eligible for admission to PG medical courses. However, with the Health Ministry reducing the cutoff to zero, candidates scoring as low as -40 have now become eligible.

As per the latest media report by Indian Express, several candidates became eligible for the NEET-PG third round of counselling as they were given time to submit fresh applications. The daily adds that due to this, a candidate who scored 5/800 in the exam has been allotted a seat for MD Forensic Medicine at University College of Medical Science in Delhi.

In case of Maharashtra, lowest NEET PG scorer is the candidate who scored 45/800 marks and secured admission in MD Biochemistry in Bharati Vidyapeeth Medical College in Pune.

The Daily adds that most of such low scoring candidates have secured admission in MD courses such as Anatomy, Pharmacology, Physiology, Microbiology among others. Some of the candidates have been allotted seats in forensic medicine, preventive and social medicine, ophthalmology among others.

Candidates and parents have now expressed their concern that several low scoring candidates might secure seats when the State-level allotment list gets declared later. Commenting on this, one of the candidates told Indian Express, “When All-India seat allotments have already gone as low as 5/800 marks in NEET PG, at state levels this may be reduced to 0 scorers too.”

“This is injustice toward meritorious students. People having money can grab a medical PG seat, with such drastic reduction in qualifying criteria. But it is also important for the general public to oppose such lowering of eligibility as this directly puts a question on the quality of MD doctors in future,” said Brijesh Sutaria, a parent representative.

Meanwhile, the Union Government's decision of reducing the cutoff percentile for NEET PG 2023 exam to zero has now been challenged before the Delhi High Court, which has issued notice Central Government and NBE in this regard. The plea filed through advocate Tanvi Dubey stated, “The candidates were shocked to note that the qualifying percentile has been reduced to zero percentile, that is, minus 40 marks across all categories.”

Contending that the government's order is erroneous, unsustainable, legally flawed and is liable to be set aside, the plea further stated, “By reducing the eligibility criteria to zero percentile, that is, minus 40 marks the very purpose of conducting of the NEET PG exam stands defeated. It also fades away the entire purpose of a ‘National Eligibility cum Entrance test’ if the quotient of ‘eligibility’ itself is diluted. The passing of the impugned order will also mean that the respondents have given importance to seat filing even when the same amounts to sacrificing certain standards.”

Also Read: NEET PG 2023: Delhi HC Seeks Response from Centre, NBE on Plea Challenging Zero Cutoff percentile