No Govt decision to postpone NExT yet, reveals RTI query from MoHFW

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New Delhi: Contrary to earlier report widely circulated in the media attributing to sources, information given by Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW) under Right To Information (RTI) reveals that a high-level meeting was held on November 7, with an agenda to hold National Exit Test (NExT) at the end of present academic year.

Earlier in a separate meeting chaired by the union Health minister, it was decided that NExT to be conducted at the end of the present academic year and there should be no lapse under any circumstances in the conduct of the NExT examination.

Even NMC in a meeting dated September 13 has informed that they would be in a position to conduct NExT timely in 2023. The one-year extension of timeline to implement NExT is prudent in nature and not a final decision on postponement of NExT.

The delay in implementation is due to a tussle going on between National Medical Commission (NMC) and MoHFW, where in NMC is adamant to conduct it in association of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi by creating an exam cell in NMC, while MoHFW is suggesting to explore possibilities to conduct it through existing agencies like National Board of Examinations (NBE) or National Testing Agency (NTA).

In their adamance to conduct NExT only through AIIMS Delhi, NMC seems to have misguided even the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) where in the fact that NBE is conducting a similar Exit Exam for Foreign Medical Graduates (FMG) for more than 2 decades, that 87th parliamentary standing committee report has taken note of 30 vigilance cases and 3 Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiries in various exam rigging and corruption cases against AIIMS, New Delhi.

The 92nd parliamentary standing committee report has mentioned NBE as an organisation not tainted in 33 years of its existence were withheld and rather a self-certification of integrity was handed over by NMC to AIIMS, New Delhi contrary to observation of 87th parliamentary standing committee report.

RTI activist R K Mittal who pioneered a campaign to dismantle Medical Council of India (MCI) and instate NExT, says that it’s clear that as NMC misguided PMO in its reply, the process of setting up of a separate exam cell has not materialized despite more than 2 years having passed since. It will be therefore in the interest of respecting parliamentary mandate to conduct NExT in time if NMC focuses on framing of regulations for NExT while existing agencies like NBE or NTA focuses on timely conduct of exam

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