Biology For MHTCET

There have been constant news reports through the last week about a single national entrance test for all MBBS colleges from 2011. This essentially means that MHT-CET will be scrapped. In Feb 2009, a similar proposal was mooted to do away with MHT-CET. That proposal itself stands thrashed.

Dr. W. B. Tayde had then pointed out that students in rural localities do not have access to coaching facilities as urban students have. Now, if you claim that your teachers cannot teach the Maharashtra State Board syllabus, how come they can teach for a national level entrance exam where the syllabus and head-competition is much higher? How come you are silent this time? Has anyone gagged you? Won’t your students have an disadvantage this time?

Ofcourse, we cannot blame Dr. W. B. Tayde because he may not have been made a party to the discussions. It may not have been within his domain this time.

But how about politicians and ministers? In Feb 2009 when the proposal to scrap MHT-CET was mooted, buzz in the insider circles was that it was more of a political maneuver because students from areas other than Mumbai and Pune had a tough time cracking the MHT-CET and getting into medical colleges. Now where are these politicians? Aren’t their subjects being at a disadvantage now?

Instead of blaming them, let us make an attempt to their silence positively. If they have failed to respond to this proposal, does it mean that they do not believe the proposal to carry any merit and they have unofficially and in their own rightness thrashed it?

Times of India has carried out an article in its prime pages about a single entrance test for MBBS and MD from 2011. I have already started receiving emails from concerned parents and students about this issue. In February this year, the HRD Ministry had announced its plans to hold a single entrance test for medical, engineering, etc. from the year 2013.

This decision is taken by the MCI and not the Supreme Court. Even though the Union Ministry of Health has accepted it, the Supreme Court can thrash it any moment. MHT-CET(and many other State CETs) is being conducted as per the ruling of Supreme Court, and not primarily as per resolutions of MCI or any Ministry. In Feb 2009, few Ministers and Bureaucrats from Maharashtra had made careless and irresponsible statements to the press that MHT-CET had been scrapped. Even though MHT-CET was not scrapped, the people who made those irresponsible statements never followed-up the same. All they did was setup a panel to find ways of doing away with the MHT-CET, but the panel had no outcome.

With specific reference to Maharashtra, a single entrance test is not possible because that there is a lot of difference in the syllabus of the State Board and other boards such as CBSE, ICSE for MBBS entrance. MD/MS entrance may be converted into a single test, but there is no chance of MBBS-entrance being converted.

The proposed single entrance test talks about only MBBS course at UG level. What about BDS, BAMS, BHMS, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, nursing, etc?

There is already one national entrance test called as CBSE PMT, or more popularly All India PMT. Not many are aware, but States can opt-out of the existing CBSE PMT scheme. For ex: Andhra Pradesh and J&K are not a part of the CBSE PMT(All India PMT) scheme. The existing CBSE PMT is only for medical(MBBS) and dental(BDS) courses, but not for ayurvedic, homeopathic, etc. courses

So it is likely that the single CET will be introduced in others states where CBSE syllabus is followed, but definitely not here in Maharashtra.

On many occasions, it has been observed that such blabber from Ministers and Govt. departments only serves to cause confusion, uncertainty and mental agony to the concerned parties without any solid outcome or follow-up. Ministers and Govt. departments have a bad habit of announcing mere “proposals” as “final decisions” in a high-sounding language and fancying themselves as the Apex authority. In Feb 2009 when there was a lot of chaos on scrapping MHT-CET, it is not known if they even approached the Supreme Court with the proposal, but some Ministers felt an compulsive urge to open their mouth loud and release misleading definitive statements in the press. So this incident could also be just one more of those.

So many and so much depends upon Information Technology(IT). However, the Maharashtra State Board of Higher Secondary Education seems to have never heard this word and its advantages. Its methods of communications are still atleast 25 years behind today. It is surprising that this Board has ‘IT’ as a subject for the H.S.C. exam but is least inclined to make use it.

All that the website has is single page with no information other than the address of the board. Not even the phone no! There is no information regarding the syllabus, sanctioned textbooks, etc. The only time that the website is of value is when the time-table of the Board exam is announced. Apart from that, the website has no other benefits.

The Board might argue that they send circulars to colleges. But are colleges the only beneficiaries of the Board. Aren’t students beneficiaries? Back in Jan08, the board had issued high-priority circular regarding ‘changes in the syllabus’. What had happened is that some of the sanctioned textbooks of Std. 12 Biology had not covered certain parts of the syllabus, and a few other textbooks had included parts which were beyond the syllabus. The Board silently issued circulars to colleges and asked to put up a copy of those on the notice boards of the college. Bear in mind that the circular was not a single-page document, but was atleast 20 pages long. Poor students had to copy down these circulars manually. At that time, the Board exam was only a month ahead. Many colleges had already conducted their prelims and students were not attending the colleges on account of preparatory leave. What is more shocking is that few colleges had not even received the Board’s circular. Was it so difficult for the Board to put up a electronic copy of the circular on its website so that students could download and have it printed? Looks like the Board people are not interested in upgrading.

If this is not enough, the website is more terrible these days. There is not a single useful word or link, not even the contact address.

The Board’s laziness is an old habit. In academic year 2008, when the current syllabus was introduced, the Board has sanctioned 9 textbooks for Std. 12 Biology. All these 9 sanctioned textbooks were full of mistakes, ambiguities and discrepancies. If the Board can give their ‘Sanctioned’ rubber-stamp to such books without verifying if they are written in accordance to the prescribed syllabus, can we look upon this organization as an accountable organization? Can we trust it to take decent care of its students? Are these lapses merely accidental or was their any irregularity?

Lately, the board seems to have realized its accountability. It is rolling out its own textbooks for std. 12. However, the issue is that their is no official word from the Board for the students. According to the grapevine and my sources, the Std. 12 Biology textbook is expected to hit the markets by August 2010. But how are students and people like me who work outside the system  supposed to know this? Don’t we have a right to know upfront about it? Its not an issue for me because I can call-up my ‘sources’ and have the piece of information, but what I am miffed about is the lack of open communication shown by the Board, especially at a time when everybody else has adopted it for the good. Is the Board a private limited company that only its shareholders are privileged to have the information? Aren’t parents entitled to know about it? Aren’t teachers entitled to know about it? It is necessary to beg the colleges to share the circulars? Or should we phone the mostly rude, uncooperative and faceless people everytime we need help? Or should we visit the Board’s office at Pune or Vashi and waste our valuable time?

Mumbai is the “Kota” of MHT-CET when it comes to facilities. However, our analysis shows that candidates from Mumbai and Mumbai Sub Urban areas together secure only 31% of the Top 1o00 ranks, and only 28% of the Top 1500. The remaining 70% of the ranks are secured by candidates from other districts, especially Latur, Nanded and Aurangabad. A surprising laggard is Pune. It manages to get only 1 in Top 10o.

A snapshot of the analysis is presented below. For complete district-wise distribution report, one can contact us.

MHT-CET 2009 medical: District-wise distribution of top rankers

Seth G. S. Medical College(GSMC), better identified as the medical college associated with K. E. M. Hospital of Parel, Mumbai is at a risk of losing MCI recognition for M.B.B.S. course. This is profoundly shocking, considering that almost all toppers of MHT-CET exam choose GSMC for their MBBS course.

A report has been carried out by Times of India. Please read the online report here.

MHT-CET 2010 will be conducted on Thursday, May 6 2010. MHT-CET is a common entrance test for admission to health sciences, engineering and pharmacy courses in Maharashtra. The information brochures and application forms for this exam are usually distributed around the time of H.S.C. board exams.

The date of MHT-CET exam may change in due course. This has happened frequently in the past. Hence students and parents are requested to keep themselves updated by periodically checking the website of DMER.

On 19 Jan 2010, the HRD Ministry has decided to de-recognize 44 deemed universities across the country, 3 out of the 44 entities are located in Maharashtra. Atleast 2 of them, namely Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, Satara and D Y Patil Medical College, Kolhapur are involved in medical/dental education. Lack of adequate facilities and infrastructure has been cited as the reason towards this step. Education of students enrolled in medical or dental courses will not be affected by this move as the colleges have been advised to affiliate with the State university. Another 44 deemed universities whose names have not been disclosed have been asked to take measures to make good the deficiencies within a period of three years.

This post is just to clarify that MHT-CET 2010 has not been canceled.Back in Feb 2009, Govt. had proposed to abolish MHT-CET – the common entrance examination for admissions to health science, engineering and pharmacy courses. At that time, it was clarified that MHT-CET 2009 and MHT-CET 2010 will be conducted, and if MHT-CET is to be scrapped, it will be only from MHT-CET 2011 onwards. It also formed a study panel to look into ways to scrap the CET. However, the study panel has not found any route to abolish the MHT-CET examination.

Source: News website ExpressIndia.com [read]
The wrong question paper sets(versions) were distributed to some of the students appearing for their MHT-CET 2009 at Anjuman-E-Islam Peer Mohammad High School, Bund Garden Road, Pune. After about 15 mins, the mistake was realized and corrected by distributing the correct set. Subhash Bhagade, the co-ordinator of the concerned examination centre has however clarified that students will not lose marks due to this fiasco.

I am happy to inform that about 45 out of 100 MCQs in MHT-CET 2009 Biology paper were already covered in our test-series for MHT-CET biology. It may be recollected that our test-series consisted of only 10 biology question papers of 100 maks each.

Update: Test-series for MHT-CET 2010 Biology has also commenced. For more information, click here.