The announcement of the National Exit Test (NExT) by the National Medical Commission (NMC) has sparked a number of protests from medical students across India.
On Tuesday, June 27, the NMC conducted a webinar with final-year students and faculty members of all medical colleges in order to clear the air of confusion around the newly proposed medical licensing and PG entrance exam.
Later in that week, the NMC also released a gazetted notification about the NExT with necessary details like exam schedule, procedure and much more.
It was stated that the first NExT examination will be conducted for the 2019 batch of medical students in their final year. After the announcement, many final-year students have come forward to show their disapproval against the new exam.
Why are the students protesting?
The students have highlighted a number of concerns related to the NExT examination.
Firstly, the most common concern is that the exam has been announced at very short notice with no clarity on the exam schedule even now.
Sachin Sharma, 2019 batch MBBS student, Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) Rohtak, explained, “Even if the exam happens in May 2024, there are hardly 10 months for the examination and the new notification says that the syllabus will cover all 19 papers of the MBBS course. How can they expect us to cover such a vast syllabus in such a short time? Now the students, especially the 2019 batch, are only focused on this licensing exam. They are only looking at the theory aspects, on coaching and are ignoring clinical training because of this fear.”
Moreover, the students are outraged over the registration fee of Rs 2000 which has been levied by the NMC for mock exams being conducted for the final year medical students this month.
More confusion looms
Despite the webinar being conducted for more ‘clarity’ about the upcoming examination, it has left the students more confused and anxious.
Students highlighted that NMC has left several important questions like negative marking and exam date, unaddressed.
“There will be NEET-PG for the 2018 batch and NExT for the 2019 batch in 2024. Now there is this question of which score they will be giving preference to for PG admissions and on what basis will they choose. There is no clarity about anything in the notification released by the NMC. They cannot impose this examination on us,” Sachin further added.
The students of PGIMS Rohtak will be launching a march on the campus against the introduction of NExT examination, tomorrow on Tuesday, July 4.
While the NMC has announced that exams will be conducted twice a year in May and November, the students are confused about when the first NExT examination will be.
‘All India Protest Week’
Apart from PGIMS Rohtak, several medical colleges across India have organised protests against the ‘imposition’ of NExT.
The All India Democratic Students' Organisation (AIDSO) had announced a week-long demonstration against the examination from July 1 to July 7. As part of their ‘All India Protest Week’, several medical colleges from different parts of the country like Fakir Mohan Medical College & Hospital in Balasore, Odisha and Dr Radhakrishnan Government Medical College in Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh have also organised protests.
Sourav Ghosh, General Secretary, AIDSO All India Committee, told EdexLive, “Our association stands against privatisation and commercialisation of education and NExT is doing exactly the same for medical education. The introduction of NExT will further boost coaching institutes and lead to commercialisation.”
The student group has been organising protests at several medical colleges and will also be launching a Twitter storm on Wednesday, July 5 as part of the protest week. Additionally, the association has also started an online signature campaign against the examination.
On July 7, a delegation of AIDSO will meet the NMC to discuss the students’ concerns.
