Vacancies push govt to bring down eligibility criteria in NEET PG to zero percentile

The eligibility criteria for admission to postgraduate medical school in India has been reduced to zero percentile in NEET PG due to a substantial number of vacancies in various courses. Around 13,000 seats are currently vacant in medical colleges across the country. The decision to reduce eligibility criteria has been supported by the medical education fraternity, but has been criticized by students who are planning to file a petition against it in the Supreme Court.

Mumbai: The eligibility criteria for admission to postgraduate medical school was reduced to zero percentile in NEET PG after the state witnessed a substantial number of vacancies in various courses such as forensic science, medicine, and pharmacology over the last three years.

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As per the data from the National Medical Council (NMC), this year around 13,000 seats are vacant in medical colleges across the country after two rounds of counselling. In 2021, 147 seats in government-run NEET colleges and 49 seats in private colleges remained vacant. The situation did not improve in 2022, with 238 government and private seats still vacant in government colleges. To fill these seats, the centre education minister last week decided to reduce eligibility criteria from 50 percentiles to zero percentiles.

While supporting the decision, Dr Pravin Shingare, former director of the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) in Maharashtra, said, “We are witnessing several seats from private as well as government medical colleges that have been vacant for the last two years. So the medical education fraternity welcomes the government decision as this decision will benefit filling the vacant posts of doctors in hospitals as well as private hospitals to manage their income and expenditure.”

In view of the vacant seats in courses like forensic sciences, anatomy, and medicine, Dr. Shingare stated that the students are not interested in academic jobs. “The doctors specialised in the fields of forensics and anatomy need to work in academia, so most of these doctors need to work for a fixed salary. On the other hand, other specialised doctors will earn as per market rates. The students who graduated from private medical colleges are not ready to invest their time in these courses. Due to this, we are witnessing an increasing number of vacant seats in these courses,” Dr Shingare said.

As of 2022, out of 2,269 postgraduate course positions in demand, 356 remain vacant. This trend has raised concerns among students who are seeking to pursue postgraduate medical education, underscoring the urgency of increasing the number of available seats in these courses.

Sudha Shenoy, a student councillor, said that the government is increasing seats every year, but they did not do a thorough study of the demand and supply of the courses in medical education and hence the vacancies have been continuously increasing for the last two years. While criticising the zero-eligibility decision, Shenoy added that the government decision was affected by middle-score students. “We are planning to file a petition against this decision in the Supreme Court of India. This decision is against the rules published in the brochure of NEET-PG,” she added.