Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has demanded from the government to cancel the results of MDCAT and reschedule it to hold it on a single day all over Pakistan.
In a statement the PMA further demanded that MDCAT should be conducted in transparent way and the carbon copy should be provided to all candidates to keep the transparency.
He said that all the stakeholders should be taken on board before taking any Major Decision regarding Medical Education in the country.
MDCAT conducting contract should be awarded to some reputed local company on merit. NLE exam should be abolished, it added.PMA is very much concerned over the recent situation in the country due to mismanagement in MDCAT Exam.
It was conducted in such a baffling way that consequently students all over Pakistan are on roads against it. They are protesting against the flaws it had due to which all the stakeholders are questioning over its transparency.
The controversy began at initial stages when MDCAT conducting contract was awarded to a private firm incorporated after the advertisement deadline.
Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules were breached for awarding contract to a company which had zero experience of conducting such exam.
Even Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) pointed out the violations of Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules in award of the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) contract to a company named SOAR Testing and Evaluation Platform (SMC).
The exams held online were conducted in a chaotic atmosphere and riddle with administrative problems.
The software and hardware used by PMC for the exams had malfunctioned; the servers hosting the exams were frequently down.
The hard work of students was wasted due to the poor examination system of the PMC.
The students were not given the right to complain or get their papers reassessed or scrutinized. The internet at the centers was not working, which resulted in many answers not being recorded and scored. The system has a technical fault due to which skipped or edited questions do not get scored.
PMA believes that students are rightly demanding to cancel the MDCAT due to its alleged technical flaws.
It was another blunder that PMC introduced the online examination system without doing pilot project and taking stakeholders on board, due to which now they are getting information about flaws.
In the past, tests were held on answer sheets and just after exam carbon copy was provided to students. Later, a key was uploaded on the website due to which candidates never argued over exam results.
It is very unfortunate that instead of resolving the issue of innocent students our government has become violent and protesting students were tortured brutally and many were sent to jail. This harsh attitude of the government towards students is not acceptable.
From the day one PMA has opposed the National Licensing Examination (NLE), which has been made compulsory for the young doctors to pass after graduation to obtain full license to practice. This shows that you do not have trust over the medical education system even through this new Act.
The other problem with decision will be a mushroom growth of coaching centers in the country. In the name of preparing the students for Exit Exams they will charge hefty fees from already overburdened parents.
Financial burden will increase manifold for the parents who want to educate their children. NLE should be abolished and standards of under graduate medical education should be improved.
PMA had been demanding for the last many years to form a democratic, autonomous, independent and transparent body to regulate medical education in the country but unfortunately in contrast to our demand government passed an undemocratic and controversial Act to form PMC. The PMC Act is undemocratic and allows Prime Minister to nominate the council.
