Following Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya’s comments at a conference at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Raipur, activist Dr Vivek Pandey has filed an RTI seeking clarification on the conduction of the National Exit Test (NExT) for 2019 batch of MBBS final-year students.
On July 6, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya said at a conference that NExT examination will not be implemented for the 2019 MBBS batch. This announcement came a few days after NMC had released an official gazette notification on the new examination.
“There has been no clarity from the NMC so far following the minister’s remark at AIIMS Raipur. No official notification or update has been given to the students yet. The uncertainty of the situation is creating anxiety among the student community,” said Dr Vivek Pandey.
The RTI was filed on Monday, July 10 demanding an official statement on whether or not the examination will be conducted for 2019 batch students.
Grievance filed to Health Ministry
Additionally, Pandey has also filed a grievance to the Health Ministry seeking a one-time relaxation for MBBS 2019 batch students in the upcoming NExT examination.
The letter mentioned that the imposition of NExT on 2019 batch students is a violation of clause 49 (1) of NMC act as the 2019 batch started on August 1, 2019 while the NMC act was published on August 8, 2019 and commenced in September 2020.
It also mentioned that many colleges in India started their academic session late in April or May and thus, the students will not be getting sufficient preparation time for the examination.
“Recently, the NMC has prescribed 17.5 months for final proffesional exam for 2022 batch while 2019 batch got hardly 12 months in many colleges,” it said
As per an update, the grievance has been forwarded to Aujender Singh, Deputy Secretary, Post-Graduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB), NMC.
