The MBBS regular students who finished their course in 2022 in Kerala have not been allotted examination centres and are unable to take the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET-PG) exams, which are scheduled for March 5 this year.
The students were unable to get examination centres in the state since approval from the National Medical Commission (NMC) to appear for the examinations was delayed due to the commission's decision to extend the completion of their mandated 365-day internship programme until June 30 this year, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express. Previously, the NMC had given only those applicants permission to take the examination who could complete their internship programmes by March 30 of this year.
Need for more centres
The National Board of Education (NBE), which conducts tests for admission to postgraduate (PG) medical courses, has extended the cut-off date for completion of the mandatory one-year internship to June 30. The previous cut-off date of March 30 would have rendered over half the students in the current batch ineligible for the exam, prompting requests from various resident doctors' associations to extend the date.
The Parents Association of Medical Association (PAMS) in Kerala has sought the intervention of the organisers of NEET so as to ensure more centres in the state. "All of the examination centres in the state were already full as applicants who graduated in previous years applied and missed out on the opportunity of the 2022 course-completed students."
Delay in allotment of exam centres
The one-year internship that is mandatory for the students started in June last year and will be completed in June this year. Since the approval from NMC on allowing the students to appear for the exams came very late, they could not get centres in Kerala. The state and union governments should intervene and allay the fears of the students, said M Nazeer, General Secretary of PAMS, as per the TNIE report.
