A wakeup call for screening the system

All 10 toppers in the AIIMS entrance test are from one coaching centre. Isn’t it odd?

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) MBBS 2017 examination results, which came out on Thursday, has baffled many of us. Ten students who were coached for the examination by a single tutorial, Allen Career Institute, in Rajasthan’s Kota have grabbed the top 10 ranks in these exams. Last year too, eight of Allen’s students had made it to the top 10 in the AIIMS 2016 exam while three had bagged the first top three ranks in National Eligibility and Entrance Test 2016. Without taking away anything from the super achievers who went through an insanely punishing schedule by the institute, a question must be raised: Has this particular institute cracked the code/pattern of these examinations to get such a perfect score? While there is no proof, it could have happened since the medical course is finite and does not change often. So it could be possible that the institute/institutes have figured out a pattern in these exams by studying the questions of the last few years.

There have also been accusations against these institutes that they ‘buy’ the best students by offering them financial incentives, the best teachers, accommodation and world class facilities for free. For the institutes, such good results ensure mileage to attract more students. In fact, it’s not just in medical and engineering that we have such coaching factories; even for the IAS there are coaching institutes which notch up top slots year after year.

Policy-makers and all those who are involved in the setting the examination papers must treat the 2017 results as a wake-up call for screening the system. They must investigate how these institutes manage to produce such brilliant results year after year. While no one is denying that there is a lot of hard work involved in passing these examinations, the authorities must keep a strict watch to prevent anyone from ‘gaming’ the system so that all students get a fair chance to get into top institutions.