Pros and Cons of extending the cutoff date of Internship for AIAPGET 2021

Pros and Cons of extending the cut off date of Internship for AIAPGET 2021  

Dr Mansoor Ali

National Testing Agency (NTA) invited application for the All India Ayush Postgraduate Entrance examination for the academic year 2021

Examinations will be on 18 Sept 2021

Cut off date of BHMS/BAMS/BUMS internship completion is: 31 October 2021 

NTA dictum
According to the prospectus: “Requests for appearing in AIAPGET 2021 from candidates completing internship after the notified date shall be summarily rejected. Candidates are further advised not to canvass for the same. The dates indicated by candidates in regard to 12 months Compulsory Rotating Internship i.e. starting date, completion date, shall be treated as final”

Current Scenario
Many of the current interns of Homeopathic Medical Colleges and other Ayush UG colleges across India will not be eligible to appear for the AIAPGET 2021 – since their compulsory rotatory internship will not be over by October 2021

Reason
Due to Covid 19 pandemic, final year BHMS examinations were delayed for more than 6 months in some of the Universities in India – subsequently, their internship completion was also delayed. So they may lose one chance of appearing for the PG entrance examination this year.

So interns from few Homoeopathic Medical Colleges requested the NTA and Ministry of Ayush through the concerned Universities to extend the cut off date of the Internship to January – March 2022.

Pros
If the Ministry of Ayush permit to increase the cut-off limit to Jan/March 2021 – the majority of interns can write AIAPGET 2021

Cons
If the cut off date is extended beyond the proposed date, PG admissions will be unduly delayed. Moreover, if the limit is extended to February or March 2022. We may lose 2021 academic year PG admission. After the declaration of results – the whole admission process should be completed before 31 December 2021. Two admissions per year is not possible in Govt colleges because of the stipend issue. 

So extending beyond December 2021 is not a good idea and that is detrimental to students who already completed an internship in previous years and appearing for AIAPGET for the second or third time.