Students of BiPC (Biology, Physics and Chemistry) in the state will now have to switch over to CBSE syllabus with the NTR University of Health Sciences announcing on September 25 that the state will participate in the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) for admissions to MBBS, scheduled to be held in 2012.
    Students rue the fact that they would have to unlearn some lessons from the state syllabus. Officials of NTR Health University had announced on Sunday that the state will not conduct Eamcet for the medical stream from the coming academic year.
    The state’s decision to participate in NEET came at a time when Telugu medium students sought to know the stand of the Medical Council of India (MCI) on providing question papers in regional languages. While over 15,000 to 20,000 students from the state write Eamcet medical stream in Telugu, it is not clear whether the national authorities will conduct NEET in regional languages. Another issue is the schedule of the national test.
    MCI has also decided that AIIMS and JIPMER will be held along with NEET. “MCI has decided not to conduct AFMC, meant for admissions to armed forces medical colleges. We are not sure whether NEET is enough for admissions to AF colleges,” said a senior lecturer.
    Students in the state are worried that their preparation which is mainly for Eamcet will not be enough to get through the national level test. “Most students from AP aim at getting a seat in medical colleges within the state and bank mostly on Eamcet. Since MCI has not specified the syllabus for NEET so far we are worried that students who have been writing the national level entrance tests will score more than us who have studied for Eamcet,” said S Anuradha, a second year student from a corporate college in the city.