MBBS might not be enough to be doctor as govt plans another qualifying exam

The medical commission, which will replace the controversial Medical Council of India, says a national test is must for practising and for post-graduate studies.

Updated on: Aug 16, 2016, 12:03:02 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The National Eligibility-cum Entrance Test (NEET) will not be enough for one to become a doctor or pursue higher medical education.

Students appear for the all India pre-medical entrance exam, in New Delhi in July, 2016. (Arvind Yadav/HT File Photo)

The government in the National Medical Commission Bill — a statutory body to replace the Medical Council of India that regulates medical education and professional practice — has proposed that students will have to clear the National Licentiate Examination (NLE) after completing graduation to practice and it will also serve as NEET for admission in post graduate courses.

Read | NEET results on Aug 17 to end long wait for medical aspirants

Through the bill the government aims to clean up the medical educational institutions under the MCI which are riddled with corruption and nepotism. The MCI itself is now being monitored by a Supreme Court appointed a three-member committee headed by former Chief Justice of India R M Lodha.

But, the draft bill prepared by the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog plans to revamp the medical education system by proposing new tests for students and having uniform academic and examination standards for around 450 medical colleges in the country.

While the bill agrees with the Supreme Court ‘s views on NEET being only test for entry into medical colleges across India, it has for the first time proposed to introduce NLE to evaluate graduates from medical colleges on the lines of skill tests for hiring teachers.

“The quality of education in medical college is an area of concern,” said a senior functionary of NITI Aayog, who was part of the committee that drafted the bill. “We felt that the test will force the institutions to introduce quality as questions would be raised if a large number of students fail to clear the test. Only those who clear the test will get license to practise,” he added.

To ensure quality, the bill proposes to set up separate under-graduate and post graduate medical education boards — overarching bodies to “oversee all aspects” of medical education at the undergraduate level.

Read | NEET a must for private medical colleges, says Bombay HC

The boards would prescribe the standards for conducting courses and examinations while leaving room for creativity at local levels including the design of some courses by individual institutions, the draft bill says. It will also prepare “dynamic curriculum” catering to “societal needs” and will ensure regular assessment of students and norms for setting up medical colleges in the country.

In addition to all this, the government plans to rate medical colleges based on their infrastructure and performance on regular basis.

New medical college will be allowed only after approval of the accreditation body, an official said, adding that there will also be an Aadhaar-based national register of all doctors and medical students in the country.

The work on a new law for medical institutions started after a Parliamentary committee earlier this year described MCI as an “ossified and opaque” body unable to cope with the “humongous” task of medical education. The committee report came after an unsuccessful bid of the UPA government to revamp the council which in the past had been investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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