The first-ever National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Neet) for admission to MBBS and BDS courses will be held on May 5, 2013. All the medical and dental colleges in government and private sector across the country have to allot seats in MBBS and BDS courses to students based on merit secured in Neet from the next academic year (2013-14).
This means there will be no Eamcet medical exam next year and Andhra Pradesh students will have to take Neet for MBBS and BDS admissions though the state government is yet to make an official statement to this effect. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has been entrusted the responsibility of conducting Neet. The CBSE came out with an official announcement to this effect on Wednesday. Neet was devised to save students from appearing for multiple entrance tests for admission to medical courses every year across the country. A single merit list will be created for the MBBS and BDS seats across the country, which will show state-wise merit list besides OBC, minorities and SC/ST quotas.
The CBSE said that the Medical Council of India and the Dental Council of India have already amended admission regulations and notified in the Gazette of India Extraordinary adopting Neet for entry to medical and dental colleges in the country. Sources in the department of higher education informed that Neet would be confined to arrive at a “merit list” of candidates and the counselling for admissions will be done by the NTR University of Health Sciences as usual. They said that there would be no change in “seat matrix” on account of Neet and all the seats in government and private medical colleges in the state will be allotted only to Andhra Pradesh students.
However, the government is yet to take a decision on adopting Neet for admission to other medical-allied courses such as veterinary, agriculture, horticulture, nursing courses etc. If the government wants to conduct its own test for these admissions, the Inter (BiPC) students have to take the Eamcet medical test. The CBSE will provide Neet questions in Telugu besides English and Hindi for the convenience of Telugu medium students following a request from the state government.