MBBS students thrown out of colleges are ‘depressed, don’t have strength to write NEET again’

The 519 students who qualified the tough National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) entrance test to get into medical colleges – only to get thrown out by the Medical Council of India (MCI) – say they are depressed and see no way out of their predicament. Qualifying NEET to get into another medical college next year is impossible as they have “no strength left to study for the exams again,” they say.

The students were issued discharge notices by MCI, and asked to vacate their college seats as they had been ‘directly’ admitted without counselling. Doing so meant violation of the Supreme Court order of September 28, 2016, to state governments to hold centralised counselling and allot colleges to students based on their NEET performance.

Calling the system unfair, students say they have high NEET scores and are being asked to leave their colleges even though others with low scores continue with their MBBS course as they got admission through counselling.

“I scored 252 in NEET but I took direct admission and didn’t appear for counselling. MCI has cancelled my admission. But in my college, many students who have come through counselling have scored less than 200,” says Pratibha, a student from Venkateshwara Institute of Medical Sciences, Gajraula, UP.

Students of FH Medical College, Tundla, Uttar Pradesh, told this correspondent that they were losing hope. “We have worked hard for the last three months, we’re almost medicos - we have dissected cadavers, slogged, but they are asking us to do NEET again to join a college. We are not in a condition to even think about it. Studying for NEET is not like having a cup of tea,” a young student said.

A group of young medical students from Hind Institute of Medical Sciences, Barabanki, UP said they dreamt of being doctors in a country which had a severe shortage of medical personnel. “This is grave injustice against us,” one of them said. “After three months we are being told to leave our college. How can we be motivated to write NEET again?”

In an application under RTI to MCI, this correspondent had asked how many students in medical colleges in India had been issued discharge notices in the academic year of 2016-17. Responding to the application, MCI had provided a list of 17 colleges from four states which admitted the 519 students directly.

These include Hind Institute of Medical Sciences and Saraswati Medical College, Unnao, affiliated to King George’s Medical University, Lucknow. Krishna Mohan Medical College and Hospital, Mathura, affiliated to Dr BR Ambedkar University, Agra; Rajshree Medical Research Institute, Bareilly, and Rohilkhand Medical College and Hospital, Bareilly, affiliated to MJP Rohilkhand University, among others.