NExT exam 'novel concept', Key Questions unanswered: NMC
He said the Health Ministry has been working on this for the past few years, but student concerns must be addressed first. Fear needs to be allayed, confidence built, and awareness created that the exam will be a fair, uniform national assessment.
NExT exam- a novel concept:
Speaking to PTI on when the NExT exam for final year MBBS students, as envisaged in the NMC Act, will be held, Dr Sheth termed the exam as a "novel concept", but stressed that consensus among all stakeholders have to be reached.
He added that concerns of students about the exam need to be addressed before conducting it, saying its implementation "will take a while".
"NExT is a novel concept no doubt but there are many unanswered questions. We have to ensure that this model is compatible with the medical education that we are providing to our students," he told PTI.
NExT exam rollout delayed over 'unanswered questions':
Elaborating further, Dr Sheth said, "The main unanswered questions are -- how we are going to transit from the state level university examination to the central model. Second is, we want to ensure what difficulty level we are going to set up with this examination."
"Third important question for us is how we will create a positive perception of this examination across stakeholders -- both the faculties as well as the medical students. And in this direction we are working," he said.
Dr Sheth said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has worked in this direction for the last couple of years.
"However, I feel it will take a while to start the NEXT exam. We need consensus amongst all stakeholders and student perspectives regarding any concerns for this examination should be addressed. Fear among students has to be allayed and their confidence level for this exam has to be created. Awareness has to be made that this examination is not going to be difficult for them but it is going to be a fair assessment for them," he said.
Adding that NMC fully supports the National Exit Test, Dr Sheth further told PTI, "Till we address all these ground level issues and we make sure that it is acceptable to all stakeholders to take this examination comfortably, to run across the country in uniform way it will take a little while. But we certainly support the NEXT examination as a novel concept and eventually we will like to work for it."
NExT Controversy:
The issue of the NExT exam has been making waves in the medical fraternity ever since its first announcement. NMC released the NExT regulations and announced conducting the exam for the 2019 MBBS batch, but 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.
However, opposing the decision to conduct the NExT exam for the 2019 batch, the students and doctors termed it 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.
Amidst the debate and uncertainty regarding the conduct of the NExT exam, NMC made the issue open to all the stakeholders. Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the stakeholders were asked to submit their opinion on whether the NExT exam should replace the conventional MBBS final year exam, held separately in addition to the MBBS final year exam, or be conducted in any other manner.
Further, the stakeholders were asked to share their opinions on various aspects such as the time and manner, exam pattern, way of conducting the exam, syllabus of NExT and several other issues.
Earlier, in response to a Right to Information (RTI) application, the NMC informed that the implementation and preparedness for the NExT exam is being examined by a committee constituted by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
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