SRINAGAR: The future of the medical school students who fled Ukraine in wake of the Russian invasion may lose their careers. The government has told the Supreme Court that their poor NEET scores prevent the government from accommodating medical colleges back home, India Today reported
If these students are offered berths in Indian Medical Colleges, it will hamper the standard of medical education in India. Besides, it can trigger litigations also. The central government has filed an affidavit detailing its response to the idea of permitting them to continue their studies back home.
There were more than 16000 Indian students in Ukraine medical colleges when the war broke out. The government had to run scores of charters to help them reach home and get them out of harm’s way. At least two Indian students died in the war.
“The common NEET exam is being conducted since 2018 and only those candidates who secure more than 50 percentile marks are eligible to take admission in Indian Medical Institutions”, the Centre has said in an affidavit, according to Indian Today. The students who took admissions abroad were falling in low merit or could afford the medical education overseas. “It is humbly submitted that in case these students with (a) poor merit are allowed admission in premier medical colleges in India by default, there may be several litigations from those desirous candidates who could not get seats in these colleges and have taken admission in either lesser known colleges or have been deprived of a seat in medical colleges. Further, in case of affordability, if these candidates are allocated Private Medical Colleges in India, they once again may not be able to afford the fees structure of the concerned institution,” the Centre said in the affidavit.
There were more than 250 students from Jammu and Kashmir who were studying medicine and were flown home. Some of them said they are taking on-line classes but the problems persist.
Supreme Court had adjourned the hearing on 10 related petitions to September 16. Reports appearing in the media said that hours after the hearing, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare filed its affidavit and said that while final year students could be accommodated in India if they cleared the Foreign Medical Graduate (FGM) exam, allowing the other semester students to transfer to Indian medical institutions would not be permissible under the rules.
