This shit is so crazy. A bit of an old news but I don't know if people outside of India caught wind of this.
The National Testing Agency (NTA), an autonomous body under India’s Ministry of Education that is responsible for holding the nationwide examinations, is at the centre of these controversies over the integrity of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), a national exam for medical aspirants held last month.
There are two NEET exams, one for undergrad and one for postgrad. The former was held but the results have been scrapped. The latter has been postponed. The postponement was announced the night before the exam.
The scale of foul play is something that I have not been able to wrap my head around mostly because I have not read the news articles about this recently. There were reports of some participants getting marks that were mathematically impossible and shit like that.
"Autonomous bodies" have become an extension of the ruling party. For example, BJP uses the Election Commision to arrest opposition leaders and freeze the funds of opposition parties. I wouldn't be surprised if the NTA was chock full of deadbeat BJP lackeys. Truly a terrible time to be an Indian right now.
The cause of the shortage has nothing to do with the pre degree required. It is entirely the limited space in medschools and the arbitrary lottery system of the accrediting body, which is corrupt.
The point of half the classes in undergrad is to allow those doctors to branch out and not just be single minded careerists. Those classes are supposed to make them think, experience new viewpoints, broaden their perspectives, and develop them as people. Not taking those classes has the same reasoning as the compsci and engineer students who whine and moan about being forced to take ethics or humanities courses.
Also taking basic biology, anatomy, and chemistry as part of medschool would be extremely inefficient, and the predegree builds a basic level of knowledge that doctors should have going into medschool.
Also of a person stops wanting to be a doctor in undergrad, they can easily switch over, as opposed to your trade school idea which would lock them into a single grouping of career paths unless they drop out.