Page 61 - EW July 2022

Special Report

NEET coaching industry. Secondary
school-leavers are herded into offline
and online coaching classes to drill and
skill them to top NEET and secure that
elusive medical seat in the country’s
minuscule number of over-subsidised
government medical colleges.
A NMOL PRADHAN, a third-

year-student of Damylo
Halytsky Lviv National
Medical University, Lviv,
who was evacuated from Ukraine in
March, recalls being packed off to
Kota (Rajasthan) — the entrance ex-
ams coaching capital of India which
hosts 150-200 institutes charging
between Rs.1.2-2 lakh per year — in Pradhan: Russian invasion victim Aneja: recurring nightmares
class XII because his parents were
hell-bent on him qualifying as a doc- education system that drove us out of colleges and their degrees; set aca-
tor. “But I couldn’t cope with the stress the country, will accommodate us and demic standards, prescribe faculty
of the Kota factory and returned home save my future,” says Aneja. qualifications; inspect colleges to eval-
to Mumbai. Despite the personal tur- Informed monitors of India’s uate infrastructure adequacy; approve
moil that I faced during my class XII, lopsided medical education system new study programmes and regulate
my NEET rank wasn’t bad at all. But blame the Medical Council of India student intake in every college. The
government colleges admit only the (MCI, estb.1933), the sole regulator wide discretionary powers invested in
top 2 percentile of NEET candidates. of medical education countrywide MCI inevitably opened the floodgates
On the other hand, private medical for 86 years until it was disbanded of corruption, especially with the de-
colleges charge exorbitant tuition in 2019 and replaced by the National mand-supply gap for medical educa-
fees. My father, a banker by profes- Medical Commission (NMC), for this tion widening and private education
sion, calculated down to the last ru- mess which has driven thousands of providers (aka edupreneurs) stepping
pee and figured that a five-year MBBS Indian students to foreign countries in forward to breach the gap.
programme would cost him Rs.1 crore desperate search for medical qualifi- MCI’s descent into corruption, cro-
in a private medical college in India. cations. Established in pre-indepen- nyism and rent-seeking hit national
On the other hand, a five-year medi- dence India under the Indian Medical headlines when Ketan Desai, an ob-
cal degree in Ukraine is 40 percent Council (IMC) Act, 1933, MCI’s initial scure professor of urology at B.J. Med-
cheaper at Rs.60 lakh and Ukraine brief was to prescribe uniform stan- ical College, Ahmedabad, was elected
medical degrees are recognised by the dards for allopathic medical education MCI president in 1996. During his
Indian Medical Council, in Europe and and to license medical practitioners. five-year tenure (1996-2001), Desai
the UK. Unfortunately, the Covid pan- The IMC Act of 1933 was repealed reportedly amassed a huge fortune by
demic shut down classes indefinitely, in 1956 and replaced with the Indian brazenly misusing MCI’s discretionary
then came the Russian invasion,” la- Medical Council Act (amended in powers to license, inspect and regulate
ments Pradhan. 1964, 1993, 2001 and 2011) which medical colleges. On November 23,
Similarly, Sahil Aneja, a third expanded MCI’s powers, investing it 2001, the Delhi high court convicted
year medical student at Lviv Universi- with the authority to license medical him for accepting a bribe of Rs.65 lakh
ty, has two recurring nightmares – one from two businessmen for dispensing
of his miraculous escape to India via Informed monitors blame the favours to medical colleges in Pimpri
Poland and the other about his uncer- and Ghaziabad, and ordered his re-
tain future. “My parents have already belatedly disbanded Medical moval from presidency of MCI. The
sacrificed a lot to pay for my medical Council of India for driving court also directed CBI to probe and
education. I can’t give up medicine prosecute Desai under the Prevention
suddenly and start looking at switch- thousands of students of Corruption Act, 1988.
ing to other streams. Where do stu- abroad in desperate search Desai’s “special clout with con-
dents like me go from here? I have no for medical qualifications cerned (sic) government officials”
hope that the corrupt and elite medical ensured that the CBI investigation

60 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2022