New Delhi: The central government is planning to instruct the National Medical Commission (NMC) to issue a fresh notification to clarify that the first National Exit Test (NExT) for medical students will be conducted in 2025, and not 2024 as was announced in June, ThePrint has learnt.
The Union Health Ministry is also urging medical education regulator NMC to include clearer instructions and address “discrepancies” found in the previous announcement.
“It will be the 2020 MBBS batch which will take the first NExT. Also, we are now writing to the NMC to release a fresh notification declaring the intent and also fixing the discrepancies which were there in the notification issued previously,” a senior health ministry official told ThePrint.
NExT is intended as a singular qualifying examination to replace three existing exams in the field of medicine: the final-year Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) exams, the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for post-graduate seats (NEET-PG), and the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) for foreign medical graduates to practice medicine in India.
The National Medical Commission had in June issued a gazette notification stating that NExT would be conducted twice a year, starting in 2024, meaning that the 2019 batch of MBBS students would have to clear it to get their degrees.
The decision had sparked an outcry from 2019 batch students and parents, who filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court. They argued that it was unfair to subject their batch to the NExT, as the National Medical Council Act of 2019, which mentions the test, was passed after they had taken admission in medical colleges.
However, last month, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, during an interaction with medical students at Raipur’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences, said categorically that the exam would not be held in 2024 and that the government would refrain from making any decisions regarding NExT that could cause “confusion”.
When contacted, NMC spokesperson Dr. Yogendra Malik confirmed that the implementation of NExT in 2024 has been deferred based on the ministry’s instructions.
“We are waiting for further guidance from the ministry in this matter,” he told ThePrint.
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‘Discrepancies’ highlighted by Health Ministry
A note prepared by the Health Ministry, accessed by ThePrint, highlights several problem areas in the NExT notification issued by the NMC in June.
For instance, the notification indicated that NExT would be a multiple-choice-question (MCQ) test with negative marking.
The ministry’s note pointed out that this format may be suitable for an entrance test but not for an exam conferring a degree.
“For an exam that confers a degree, it should be a simple test of knowledge,” says the ministry note. “For an exclusive entrance exam, it is ok to have negative marking but it may be unreasonable to club a final degree exam with an entrance exam.”
Moreover, the note points out that the notification lacks clarity on important issues, such as the phasing out of university examinations and previous entrance exams for PG course admissions, as well as the tiebreaker rule for generating ranks in the merit list.
The ministry has also questioned the proposed norm that candidates must score a minimum of 50 per cent in all six papers in a single attempt to be eligible for postgraduate (PG) admission.
“For license to practice, multiple attempts can be given, said the NMC notification,” says the ministry note. “But supposing a candidate fails in the exam, now he/she has to appear in two tests— one for passing the subject and the other one for being eligible for PG admission, as it has to be cleared in a single attempt. This may be irrational.”
ThePrint contacted the office of Union Health Secretary Sudhansh Pant over the phone for his comment on the matter, but he was unavailable. This report will be updated if a response is received.
‘We want complete clarity’
When the June notification for NExT came out, students and their parents voiced several objections, including that the MCQ format of NExT would promote rote learning and lead to a surge in specialised coaching.
They also pointed out that the test would encompass questions from any section of the MBBS syllabus. In contrast, the current final year examination for the 4.5-year MBBS course (excluding internship) is a subjective test that solely covers the final year syllabus.
Some parents also moved the Supreme Court, claiming that holding NExT for the 2019 MBBS batch violated the NMC Act.
“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,” Dr Raj Shekhar Yadav, father of a final year MBBS student from Rajasthan had told ThePrint last month.
Clause 49 of the NMC Act indicates that students who were admitted before it came into effect will continue their studies following the syllabus and regulations of the previous Indian Medical Council Act.
In response to the concerns raised, the National Medical Commission (NMC), under the directive of the Health Ministry, withdrew the NExT notification before the matter could be heard in the Supreme Court.
Students, however, are still awaiting clarity on the matter.
“The minister’s statement has made it clear the 2019 batch will not be subjected to NExT, but we want complete clarity on the matter at the earliest from the NMC,” said Dr Preeti Gupta, a supporter of the students who filed the case in the Supreme Court.
“The final year students still do not know the pattern in which their qualifying examination will be conducted,” she added.
This report has been updated to reflect that Dr Preeti Gupta was not a co-petitioner in the SC case, but supported the petitioners.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
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