Congress leader Jairam Ramesh made a plea in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday to regulate the fees of private medical colleges. He also called for an increase in the number of government medical colleges.
Raising the issue during the Zero Hour listing, he said only 53 percent of all medical institutions in the country are government colleges and the rest are private colleges. He added that the number of private schools has increased in recent years.
He added that in 2017 the government passed the National Medical Commission Bill (NMC) to regulate fees and all other costs for no more than 40 percent of seats in private medical colleges. Later, the standing committee changed it to at least 50 percent. However, he stressed that the high fees charged by private medical colleges for seats are beyond the purview of the NMC.
“We must increase the number of government medical colleges (and) we must strictly regulate the fees of all medical institutions, including private ones. The tariff policy is currently to ‘pay now, learn later’, but it should be ‘learn now, pay later’, the MP said.
He added that there is an acute shortage of doctors and public health professionals in this country, adding: “The belief that private medical education will form the foundation of medical education in this country is deeply, deeply flawed and extremely dangerous,” DailyExpertNews reported. Indian express.
Meanwhile, India has about 90,000 MBBS seats while about 16 lakh students appear for its admission test across India. At least 47,000 seats are in government colleges, where fees are nominally ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 80,000 per year while in 42,000 private colleges the fees average Rs 16 lakh to 20 lakh per year, News18 previously reported.
This year, the government lifted the age limit for medical college admissions, making seating available to a wider range of students for a wider range of students, including those who failed the NEET (medical entrance exam) on their first attempt, as well as those who are paramedics and have passed grade 12 with physics, chemistry and biology as core subjects.
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