ISLAMABAD:National Assembly Standing Committee on National Health Services, Regulations, and Coordination on Thursday received a briefing on the holding of the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) across the country.
Officials from Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) briefed the meeting which was held under the chairmanship of Hamayun Mohmand.
The chairman and members of the committee raised various questions about conducting the MDCAT exam. The chairman said that there should be no discrimination against any student.
The chairman asked the PMC to facilitate foreign graduates to save their precious time. He said that PMC should make a proper decision on foreign medical graduates.
He also asked the commission to give some margin to those foreign medical graduates who appeared in the August exam as they have to pass the NLE exam for having jobs in Pakistan. He added students from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were facing issues in getting house jobs and asked to give all such students house jobs in different hospitals.
On asking a question by the chairman regarding allowing those students who passed last year’s exam with 65 percent marks in this MDCAT, the PMC officials informed that the decision in this regard will be made by the commission.
They said that in order to facilitate Pakistani students seeking admission in recognized colleges offering MBBS and BDS programs, the council decided that the pass percentage of MBBS will be 55% and that of BDS will be 45% so that the maximum number of students are catered in the country.
They added that FSc (Pre-Medical) or equivalent with 60% marks will be eligible to apply for admission to MBBS or BDS. The pass percentage has been reduced from 65% to 60%. He said that the MDCAT exam will be a paper-based manual exam and the answer keys of the papers will be uploaded by the concerned universities on the PMC website on the same day after the exam.
They said that 70% passing marks are required for NLE-II. They added that 42% of student got success in the last exam which was held in August and the result was released by the National Medical Authority.
They said that the council has decided that the NLE examination for local students will be conducted through their degree awarding Universities under the umbrella of PMC. They added the pass percentage of NLE-1 and NLE-2 has been reduced from 70% to 50% and made it clear that it will not be used as a retrospective.
The committee was informed that the foreign medical and dental graduates having completed their qualifications from the approved list will be issued provisional licenses to undertake house jobs after having verification of their basic degrees from the granting institutes.
These provisional license holders must complete the mandatory requirement of passing the NLE-1 and 2 at any time prior to the issuance of a full license. The council further decided that medical and dental graduates from unrecognized or unapproved institutions or programs have to mandatorily appear and pass NLE-1 and 2 before issuance of a provisional license, they added.