NEXT Guidelines May be Out Soon, Deliberations Under Process: NMC Official

New Delhi: The regulations for the National Exit Test (NExT) might be released soon, Dr. Yogender Mallik, a member of the Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB) of the National Medical Commission (NMC) confirmed to Medical Dialogues.

Earlier this year, NMC made the matter of NExT examination open to all the stakeholders. The Commission asked all the stakeholders to submit their feedback on the NMC National Exit Test Regulations, 2023 by 07.02.2024. Later, the deadline was further extended by the Commission till 17.02.2024.

When asked about this, Dr. Yogender Malik told Medical Dialogues, "A Committee is working on it. Following this, it will come to the NMC. Meetings are going on."

The issue of the NExT exam has been making waves in the medical fraternity ever since its first announcement. Although last year NMC released the NExT regulations and announced conducting the exam for the 2019 MBBS batch, it was ultimately put on hold for an indefinite time.

NMC NExT Regulations, 2023, were published in the official Gazette on June 28, 2023 and a mock test for the NExT exam was scheduled to be held on July 28 2023 by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.

Also Read: NMC Extends Deadline for Submitting Comments on National Exit Test Regulations 2023

However, opposing the decision to conduct the NExT exam for the 2019 batch, the students and doctors termed it to be a violation of the NMC Act, 2019. Referring to the 2019 Act, the doctors pointed out that the 2019 MBBS batch started on August 1, 2019, i.e. the batch started before the publication of the NMC Act 2019. Therefore, the doctors argued that conducting NExT for the 2019 batch would be a violation of the NMC Act 2019.

Meanwhile, the Union Health Ministry intervened and NMC deferred the NExT examination until further notice from the Ministry. Thereafter, the Union Health Ministry has constituted a seven-member committee to look into the preparedness of States and medical colleges for the implementation of the exam for the final year MBBS students of the 2020 batch.

"There is no confusion on NExT regulations and we will implement them whenever they are out. We will announce in the regulations itself about which MBBS batch will be the first to sit for this exam. We want to assure the students that we will provide them all the information that they need for this exam and they will get ample time for preparation," he further informed the Daily.

Meanwhile, recently, submitting its feedback on the NEXT examination, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has opposed the Commission's plans for conducting the exam as it opined that since the standards of medical education across all academic institutions vary, testing the entire country with one test would not be "feasible".

In a letter addressed to the Chairman of NMC, Dr B.N.Gangadhar, the association highlighted that the medical colleges across the country are facing inadequate technical infrastructure, and faculty training and support. Therefore, IMA stated that NMC should not proceed with NExT until these prerequisites are duly satisfied.

A Parliamentary committee also recommended to the Union Health Ministry to thoroughly examine the implications of NExT Exam and advocated for due diligence in addressing the concerns of all the relevant stakeholders.

Also Read: Reconsider implementation of National Exit Test: IMA to NMC