The NEET PG Controversy

With nearly 18,000 postgraduate medical seats estimated to be vacant nationwide ahead of the third round of counselling, the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) has lowered the NEET PG 2025 qualifying cut-off to zero percentile — and a score of minus 40 — for certain categories, triggering concerns about declining standards in medical specialisation.

Percentile vs Percentage: Problem of Eligibility

• Meaning of Zero Percentile: A zero percentile means all candidates qualify, making mere exam appearance sufficient for specialisation, weakening the idea of merit-based selection.
• Revelation: The 0th percentile corresponds to -40 marks. 
  • This shows a flaw in how “merit” and “minimum competence” are defined.
  • Cut-off is being used as an administrative tool, not an academic benchmark.
• Public Trust and Safety: Critics argue that admitting candidates with weak foundations could affect the quality of care and patient safety.

Mismatch in Assessment Systems

• Two Assessments: Medical students are trapped between two worlds of assessment:
  • University examinations (subjective) focused on 10–20 marker theory questions.
  • NEET-PG (objective) is dominated by recall-based MCQs.
• Core Problem: Neither system reliably judges clinical competence. Answering a recall question cannot prove the ability to perform surgery or manage a patient. 
  • Thus, both theory-heavy and memory-heavy systems fail to assess what matters most in medicine.

Medicine as a Practical Craft

• Glorified Masons: A surgery professor’s remark that “doctors are glorified masons” captures an essential truth: medicine is a craft, not just a science. 
  • Like masons, doctors learn by doing, observing, and repeating. 
  • Experience, not examination rank, builds competence. 
  • Standardised tests (MCQs) cannot measure this craft.

Impact of Coaching Culture

• Rise of Coaching Platforms: Various platforms have capitalised on the divide between university exams and NEET.
• Consequences: Students are oblivious to coursework.
  • Institutional teaching has little practical value for the entrance exam.
  • Candidates ace complex MCQs but have zero manners or clinical judgment, hollowing out the purpose of medical colleges.

Governance and Administrative Instability

• Governance & Accountability Issues: The controversy is not just about marks, but about systemic chaos.
• Indicators of Systemic Chaos: Constantly changing counselling schedules.
  • Abrupt introduction of new schemes.
  • Poor accountability from authorities.
• Impact: This instability makes students question the validity of the NEET-PG system itself.

Crisis in Foundational Medical Subjects

• Unglamorous” Branches Left Vacant: Seats remain vacant in Anatomy, Physiology, Pharmacology, Pathology.
• Reasons for Vacancies: Chronic gaps in infrastructure. Limited laboratory facilities, Inadequate research funding, and unclear academic career pathways.
• Implication: Without these branches, the base of medicine collapses.

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Way Forward

• National Exit Test (NExT): The proposed NExT (National Exit Test) holds promise only if implemented with vision.
  • There is a need for an assessment model closer to the USMLE (USA model).
• NExT Should Include: Longitudinal evaluation, not one-day ranking.
  • OSCEs (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) to test practical skills.
  • Clinical reasoning, not just memory.
  • The goal must be competence certification, not mere rank generation.

Conclusion

The NEET-PG cut-off controversy reflects a broken assessment system, coaching-driven learning, governance instability, and erosion of foundational disciplines.

• Without reforming how doctors are evaluated and trained, changing cut-offs will not ensure competent doctors or patient safety.

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