New Delhi: Calling it an “ill-conceived scheme”, several among the 2019 batch of MBBS students, as well as their parents, are protesting against the proposed 2024 National Exit Test (NExT), ThePrint has learnt.
NExT has been envisaged as a single examination to replace the final year Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) examinations in medical colleges across India, the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for post-graduate seats (NEET-PG), and the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) — the licentiate test for those who complete their MBBS abroad, to practice in India.
The 2019 batch of MBBS students will be the first to take the proposed 2024 NExT exams as their graduation test.
Parents of these students are planning to file a special leave petition in Supreme Court to challenge the decision of medical education regulator, National Medical Commission (NMC), to implement the test from the coming year, students and parents ThePrint spoke to said.
As of now, the final year examination for the four-and-a-half-year MBBS course (excluding intership) is a subjective type test that only focuses on the final year syllabus. NEET-PG is a multi-choice-question (MCQ)-based test, but most students prepare for it while doing their internship after the final year examination, said those ThePrint spoke to.
NExT on the other hand will be a MCQ-based test, which may include questions from any section of the complete MBBS syllabus.
A student from Madhya Pradesh — part of the 2019 batch — said on condition of anonymity that while NMC was trying to pitch NExT as a move to veer students away from coaching classes targeted at clearing NEET-PG, however, the design of the test may defeat the purpose.
“If the test is MCQ-based and can include questions from any section of the entire MBBS syllabus, students will need to indulge in rote learning to crack the test. And now, the coaching industry will start offering specially-designed courses aimed at clearing NExT which the students are likely to find more useful,” the student said.
Meanwhile, parents ThePrint spoke to said it was not appropriate to subject the batch to the NExT examination as the intention to conduct the test — which was mentioned in the National Medical Commission Act, 2019 — was declared after the batch had taken admission.
“Imposing NeXT on the 2019 batch is a violation of clause 49 of NMC Act, because the 2019 batch started on 1 August, 2019 while the NMC Act was published on the 8th of the month that year and came into effect in September 2020,” said Dr Raj Shekhar Yadav, father of a final year MBBS student from Rajasthan.
He added: “Provisions of the Act cannot be applied retrospectively… forcing the 2019 batch to appear in the test would be against the principle of natural justice.”
Clause 49 of the Act indicates that instructions and examinations for such students, who got admission before the Act came into being, will continue to study in accordance with the syllabus and studies as existed under the old Act.
“Ideally, the exam should be applicable for the new MBBS batch that will get inducted from the upcoming academic session as the details have been announced now, but at the very least, 2020 batch students can be subjected to the test as they took admission after the intent to organise NExT was declared,” Yadav said.
When contacted for his comment on the issues being raised by the examinees and their parents, NMC spokesperson Dr. Yogendra Malik said that there should be “no confusion around NExT after the gazette notification has been released”.
“If there were concerns about how the examination will be conducted, those have been addressed in detail through the notification,” he told ThePrint.
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‘Multiple issues’
The NMC, in a gazette notification published last week, clarified that the examination will be held from next year.
According to the notification, NExT will be a two-part examination. NExT-1 will be a multiple choice question (MCQ)-based test and will replace the university-level final year examinations. It will be conducted twice a year — in May and December. This test will be used to score students and will be the basis of preparing a nationwide merit list, based on which the specialty PG seats across medical colleges would be allocated.
NExT-2, on the other hand, will be a test to evaluate the practical or clinical training the students have received and can be taken only after the students have completed their internships. It will be a qualifying examination and the students will receive a license to practice medicine after completing NExT-2.
The student quoted above said that another issue is that a minimum of 50 percent would be needed in NExT-1 to clear the examination.
“For NEET-PG now, a percentile-based merit list is prepared and only those in the top 50 percentile qualify the test. Thus, it is going to be far more difficult to crack NExT,” the student pointed out.
Santosh K., president of the Parents Coordination Group of Medical Students from Kerala told ThePrint that NExT-1, which is to replace the university-level examination for final year students, will be an objective MCQ test in which students will be tested on all 19 subjects they have studied in four-and-a-half years of MBBS before their internship.
“That means that the newly-designed test will put additional stress and burden on the students,” he said.
According to Dr. Tosher Contractor, another parent from Rajasthan whose daughter is a final year MBBS student, the pressure of MCQ-based test may push students towards various online coaching programmes.
“Final year MBBS students are required to receive clinical training in five subjects which requires them to spend major time in the hospital settings rather than classrooms… in such a scenario, how are they expected to revise all 19 subjects that form the MBBS syllabus?” he said.
According to Contractor, when students who get admission in NEET-UG are selected at far lesser percentages — for instance, students who were declared qualified last academic session based on the percentile system may have got just 14-19 percent marks in subjects like Physics — it is unfair to ask them to score 50 percent marks in NExT.
“Many of the low-scoring students are able to secure seats in private medical colleges which largely offer seats to students based on their paying capacity. How can they be asked to score a minimum of 50 percent marks to get their degrees?” he asked.
If the policymakers want only the best students to earn the degree to become doctors, they should first ensure that only the best students get into medical colleges, he said.
(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)
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