Citing a danger to medical education, IMA opposes the NExT tests

NEW DELHI: The National Exit Test (NExT), a standard qualifying examination for medical graduates, has drawn opposition from the Indian Medical Association (IMA).
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) expressed severe concerns about the idea of NExT in a letter to B N Gangadhar, head of the National Medical Commission. The physicians’ group said, “IMA is convinced that introducing NExT will jeopardize medical education in India.”

According to the IMA letter, “NExT seriously jeopardizes the survival of medical institutions in underprivileged communities and situations, thereby defeating the government’s vision of accessible and affordable medical education.”We cannot afford to deny physicians who have degrees from practicing medicine. It should be mentioned that in prior years, only around 20% of applicants passed the NEET PG test with more than 50% of the possible points.”
It continues: “Currently uniform standards of medical education across all institutions do not exist and testing the entire country with one test will not be feasible and using the same exam to test the basic minimum required for licensing and the high standards required for postgraduate entrance assessment is completely illogical.”
According to IMA, the structure of multiple-choice questions will make students less engaged and attentive in lectures and clinics. “It will result in mushrooming of coaching centres which are already threatening medical education in the country by patronising only the rich,” said a representative of the IMA.