Use NExT exam to monitor medical colleges' performance: Hospitals ask PM Modi
NExT Exam
New Delhi: The proposed exit-licentiate examination, the National Exit Test (NExT), can be used as an outcome-based Assessment tool to monitor performance and teaching quality at medical colleges across the country, NBE-accredited institutes, and hospitals, recently suggested to the Prime Minister of India.
The Association of National Board Accredited Institutions (ANBAI), which represents hospitals and teaching institutions across India that are accredited to the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) for postgraduate medical education, wrote to PM Modi expressing its concern and constructive suggestions regarding the functioning of NMC.
ANBAI's representation to the Prime Minister comes after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) busted a systemic corruption racket in the medical education sector and booked 34 individuals, including officials from the Union Health Ministry and the National Medical Commission (NMC), for their alleged involvement in manipulating the regulatory framework for private medical colleges.
Apart from suggesting a restructuring of the Apex Medical Commission, the association has also suggested that the proposed National Exit Test (NExT) examination can be used as an outcome-based assessment tool to monitor the quality of medical institutes across India.
According to the association, the NExT examination presents a valuable opportunity to introduce performance-linked regulation. "Beyond serving as a licensing exam, it can be used to assess and compare institutional quality across the country," opined ANBAI in its letter addressed to the Prime Minister on July 7.
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It pointed out that the institutes that would show consistently poor results should be reviewed for improvement plans and those demonstrating excellence should be recognised and supported.
Commenting on the matter, Dr. Alexander Thomas, a patron of ANBAI, pointed out that the problems with NMC and the erstwhile Medical Council of India was with the inspector Raj, where people used to go for inspection and get involved in corruption. As an alternative, he recommended using the NExT exam to monitor the performance of medical colleges.
"Based on the NExT exam, they will have an idea about how the training is in each of the institutes, based on the performance of the students. Based on that, the good institutions should be appreciated and the ones that are not too good need to be told to improve, and the inspection should be kept to a minimum. And now with the technology, everything can be monitored," he told Medical Dialogues.
NExT Controversy:
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.
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.
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 National Medical Commission (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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