While India has a total of 315 allopathic medical colleges, they are however concentrated only in a few states. The top three Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Maharashtra take up almost 40 per cent, when you add West Bengal, Telangana and Gujarat to this equation, they constitute 60 per cent of the total colleges across India.
Tamil Nadu has 42 colleges, followed by Karnataka (39), Maharashtra (38), West Bengal (27), Telangana (22) and Gujarat (21). What came to us as a huge shock is the number of allopathy medical colleges in the national capital, which currently stands at nine. The other major states up North and down South that have strikingly low numbers include Bihar which also has nine, Kerala has 18, Uttar Pradesh has 15, Madhya Pradesh (7) and Andhra Pradesh has 11. These states only take up a meagre 19.04 per cent of the total allopathic medical colleges in India.
While Tamil Nadu has the highest number of medical colleges in the country, the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2021 which students need to qualify in order to apply to these colleges, has been in the news for sometime now. Owing to the pandemic, the incumbent DMK government in TN has sought cancellation of NEET this year after cancelling the Class 12 board examinations in the state. "Given the circumstances, I'm of the strong view that conducting National level entrance examinations for any professional course would be immensely detrimental to the health and well-being of the students. I, therefore, urge you to cancel the conduct of all national level entrance examinations like NEET", Chief Minister MK Stalin recently told the media.
The opposition in the state, the AIADMK, has also urged the Centre to exempt Tamil Nadu from common entrance examinations including NEET. The party suggested that admissions to various courses including medical in the state should be allowed based on marks in the Class 12 exams for this year looking at the pandemic situation. However, with the TN government's stance regarding NEET, several educationists have also raised concerns about the confusion it might cause as a majority of students who apply to write the exams are repeaters.
