Study of medicine requires ‘sharp young minds’: MCI

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 23

The Medical Council of India (MCI) on Thursday defended its regulation stipulating an upper age limit of 25 years with a maximum three attempts for admission to MBBS/BDS course, saying study of medicine required “sharp young minds”.

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In an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, the MCI said: “It is unfair to make a young student giving the NEET examination for the first time to compete with a much older student who had more time to prepare and had already given several attempts.”

The affidavit has been filed in response to a petition challenging the age criteria for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for undergraduate medical and dental courses.

The regulation that came into force from this year also restricted the maximum attempts at three.

There are approximately 63,835 seats in MBBS and 27,000 seats in BDS available in various government and private medical colleges across India.

On an average, 7 to 7.5 lakh students compete every year for these seats for MBBS and BDS courses.

Prior to January 31, 2017, there was no upper age limit to compete for admission to these courses through NEET.

This year’s application forms are already out and the examination is scheduled to be held on May 7.

The MCI said, “Age is a major factor in determining the capability of the student to learn…the study of medicine requires rigorous study and training imparted during the MBBS/BDS course and, therefore, sharp young minds are required to absorb the same. This is the reason that most countries in the world prefer only young students in professional courses e.g. medicine, engineering etc.”

It said: “A young student pursuing studies in MBBS/BDS course will be able to grasp the teaching and training imparted in the medical colleges with more ease and efficiency. Hence, it is imperative that these young students are given the maximum opportunity to make the most out of the teaching and training imparted in the medical college and to enable them to develop skills which would help them in becoming great doctors.”

The MCI said under the Graduate Medical Regulations, 1997 it had prescribed 17 years as the minimum age limit to be eligible for admission in the medical college.

By fixing 25 years as the upper age limit for appearing in the NEET examination every student belonging to General Category on an average gets 7-8 years for preparation and three attempts to appear in the said examination.

Similarly a student belonging to SC/ST/OBC category on an average gets 13 years till he/she attains the age of 30 years for preparation and three attempts to appear in the said examination and no student is deprived of a fair and reasonable opportunity to compete with other students in the common entrance examination, it submitted.

Earlier this month, the top court had issued notice to the MCI and the Centre on a petition filed by Sabyasachi Rai who contended that since the authorities had already fixed three attempts for a medical aspirant, there was no need to fix an upper age limit at 25 years.