New Delhi, Jan. 5: The proposal for a common entrance test for medical colleges that has been opposed by some states is likely to be re-pitched as just a nationwide ranking system that will allow states to superpose their own entry conditions.

The Medical Council of India had last year proposed a common entrance test for the 32,000 undergraduate medical seats across the country, saying that would introduce uniform standards and ease the burden on students who currently have to take multiple examinations.

But some states, including Tamil Nadu, have rejected the proposal, and the Union health ministry has asked the MCI to withdraw its notification of the test issued last week, sources said.

The MCI is likely to make a presentation of the proposal at a meeting of state health secretaries in Hyderabad on January 12 and 13, a member of the board of governors of the council said. “We’d like to clear any doubts that states have about this.”

The common entrance test is likely to be pitched as a screening mechanism that will assign ranks to students and allow states to apply their own criteria for admissions, sources familiar with the proposal said.

“The problem is that the MCI proposal did not adequately address some genuine anxieties of the states,” a former member of a government task force on medical education said. “The MCI should make it clear that the test will in no way interfere with criteria such as quotas that states would like to impose,” he added.

A common test without any other criteria may intensify disparities between states. A medical college in the Northeast established primarily for the local communities may find itself filled with students from Delhi or Bengal.

The exclusive use of a common entrance test may also work against rural aspirants who have poorer access to pre-medical test coaching centres, a senior medical educationist said.

Recent data from Tamil Nadu shows a spurt in rural candidates getting into medical colleges after the state abandoned its state entrance test and used only school-leaving marks among criteria to determine entry into colleges.

“The test will only assign ranks to students to ensure that someone who scored 600 does not get ahead of someone with a higher score,” the MCI member said. “But this will not interfere with the existing reservations or quota systems in place. We’re hoping that we can convince the states and institutions about the merits of such a system.”

While reservations, minority quotas and private management quotas will continue, the MCI proposal will ensure that students entering such quotas have appeared for the test, the MCI board member said.

The capitation fee system does not impose any conditions on management quota candidates today — with the result that students who probably would not qualify through any test are able to enter some private medical colleges.