STUDENT ADMISSIONS TO EMC ON MERIT

All admissions for the 2014-15 academic year to seats in the Ernakulam Medical College here will be merit-based, and through the entrance examination conducted by the Commissioner of Entrance Examinations, K. Ellangovan, Health Secretary, said in a statement issued on Monday.

As the prospectus for admissions to the new academic session was prepared in November 2013, the college was still under the Cooperative Academy of Professional Education.

After the college was taken over by the government, the Commissioner of Entrance Examinations was asked to make the required changes in the prospectus, said the statement.

Even though the Ernakulam Medical College is in-principle part of the government medical colleges, the website of the Commissioner for Entrance Examination shows the college as government-sponsored self-financing college.

This had created much confusion and had led to media reports as well.

In an indication that the medical college here was very much a part of the Directorate of Medical Education, it had participated in the meeting called by the Health Secretary for reviewing Plan funds by all principals of government medical colleges last week in Thiruvananthapuram.

However, the confusion continued because the college is yet to be fully integrated into the government system though all patient care facilities available in other medical colleges like free generic medicines and implementation of government schemes had begun this month.

The Health Secretary had earlier mentioned that integration of the employees would take more time because of the prevailing model code of conduct and the long procedures involved.

He had also said that the government had made a stop-gap arrangement with the Cooperative Academy of Professional Education to provide the running expenses for two more months.