New Delhi: Making a strong case for bringing sweeping reforms in medical education in India, a government-appointed panel has recommended a centralised common exit exam for the MBBS programme.
The K Kasturirangan-headed panel, which recently presented the draft national policy on education to the government, has also suggested lateral entry for nursing and dental students into the four-year MBBS programme.
The panel suggested: “Just like NEET has been introduced as a common entrance examination for MBBS, a common exit examination for MBBS will be introduced. It will also play a dual role as the entrance examination for the postgraduate medical programme.”
Common exit exams could also be conducted for dental courses and other medical disciplines, it said, adding, the move will provide relief to the students and help them focus on their residency periods.
The National Medical Commission Bill presented in Lok Sabha in December 2017, had also proposed a common exit entrance test for MBBS graduates.
This proposal was, however, met with stiff opposition on the grounds that it would undermine the autonomy of medical colleges. Not much has been heard about the legislation since then.
The draft education policy has suggested upgrading all the 600 district hospitals in the country into teaching hospitals with necessary investment in infrastructure and appointing adequate number of qualified teaching faculty.
New medical colleges and hospitals that have adequate number of patients and well-trained teaching faculty should be allowed to start post-graduate courses to address shortfall of seats.
The policy has also strongly favoured mainstreaming of different health systems such as Ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and homoeopathy given the “pluralistic health care legacy of the country”.
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