Cong-NCP’s NEET plan was junked by new govt
Maharashtra medical aspirants could have been better placed to face NEET challenge had the BJP-Shiv Sena government stuck to a decision taken by the previous Congress-NCP government to follow the NEET pattern way back in 2014.
But the present government overturned the decision and looked for an alternative pattern.
Sources in the government said that NEET pattern was followed in 2013, after which it got challenged in the courts.
Gavit had worked as assistant professor in a medical college and felt that students of state boards often lagged behind their counterparts of central boards when it came to competitive exams.
In 2015, the BJP government took a U-turn and diluted the character of the examinations by reverting to state board syllabus for CET and doing away with negative marking. ``Standard competitive examinations in the country have negative marking system. The system is essential to discern the non-serious candidates who rely on guesswork from the serious. But going back to the old CET pattern and state board syllabus proved to be a retrograde step even as students were caught unawares when the SC judgment came out,’’ said an IAS official who had earlier served with the medical education department.
``The decision to NEET should have been implemented. Private colleges and deemed universities charged up to Rs 60 lakh for a seat. Many meritorious students were deprived. We exposed this scam and 34 students challenged it in HC,” said Jayant Jain of Forum for Fairness in Education.
Medical education minister Vinod Tawde said, ``Saying all this is an afterthought. I have over 10,000 representations from students that negative marking must go. People said that the state is taking NEET for helping coaching classes. People asked us to spare us from coaching classes. Law and judiciary studied the proposal before taking the decision.’’
Gavit did not answer calls from this paper. The then chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said, ``I always wanted a uniform (examination) policy for the country.’’
But the present government overturned the decision and looked for an alternative pattern.
Sources in the government said that NEET pattern was followed in 2013, after which it got challenged in the courts.
While the petition was pending, Dr Vijaykumar Gavit, MLA, (now with BJP) the then medical education minister, took a decision that the government must adopt the pattern and syllabus of NEET for the state CET to be conducted in 2014. His argument was that sometime or the other NEET would become fait accompli. That apart, NCERT pattern of studies would also help the students to be prepared for any competitive examination in future.
Gavit had worked as assistant professor in a medical college and felt that students of state boards often lagged behind their counterparts of central boards when it came to competitive exams.
In 2015, the BJP government took a U-turn and diluted the character of the examinations by reverting to state board syllabus for CET and doing away with negative marking. ``Standard competitive examinations in the country have negative marking system. The system is essential to discern the non-serious candidates who rely on guesswork from the serious. But going back to the old CET pattern and state board syllabus proved to be a retrograde step even as students were caught unawares when the SC judgment came out,’’ said an IAS official who had earlier served with the medical education department.
``The decision to NEET should have been implemented. Private colleges and deemed universities charged up to Rs 60 lakh for a seat. Many meritorious students were deprived. We exposed this scam and 34 students challenged it in HC,” said Jayant Jain of Forum for Fairness in Education.
Medical education minister Vinod Tawde said, ``Saying all this is an afterthought. I have over 10,000 representations from students that negative marking must go. People said that the state is taking NEET for helping coaching classes. People asked us to spare us from coaching classes. Law and judiciary studied the proposal before taking the decision.’’
Gavit did not answer calls from this paper. The then chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said, ``I always wanted a uniform (examination) policy for the country.’’
