According to the academic calendar, as mentioned the Competency-Based Medical Education Curriculum (CBME) Regulations 2023, brought out by the National Medical Commission (NMC) on August 1, the first edition of the National Exit Test (NExT) will be held in 2028 for the students of this year's batch.
The calendar denotes that NExT Step 1 will be held in February 2028 for the 2023-24 batch students, while NExT Step 2 will be held in February 2029. It is also mentioned that the second phase of NExT is proposed to be held in July 2028. However, there is no official notice from the NMC in this regard, triggering fresh confusion among students.
The academic calendar is in contrast with Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya's earlier announcement that the debut edition of the newly introduced exam would be held for the 2020 batch students. On July 6, he clarified that NExT wouldn't be implemented for the 2019 batch, as was decided earlier, but for the next batch, during an interaction session with students at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Raipur.
Following his statements, the NMC, on July 13, issued a notice stating that the NExT exam was deferred till further notice. And a mock test scheduled for July 28, supposed to be conducted by AIIMS Delhi, for the 2019 batch students was cancelled.
Later, on July 26, Dr Mandaviya, during another interaction session at AIIMS Rae Bareli said that NExT wouldn't be tougher than NEET. "Its merit system of 50 per cent will not harass students. Students who could pass NEET can pass NExT," he said in a video which went viral on social media. He further mentioned that the exam is meant for students who wish to obtain a license for practice and who seek admission to PG courses, clarifying that the students would receive their medical degrees from their universities.
Nonetheless, students await further clarification on the exam, especially related to its schedule. Health activist Dr Dhruv Chauhan cautions students against blindly believing the calendar mentioned in the CBME Regulations. He tweets, "NMC hasn’t clarified anything like this yet! Only the CBME schedule mentions it which is itself a confusion and NMC is all set to conduct NEXT in 2025 only as per the information. Kindly don’t fall for rumours." In a subsequent tweet, he appealed to the NMC to release a clarification soon.
