Data shows 48pc Sindh students failed MDCAT this year

It has been revealed that in Sindh around 48 per cent of students who appeared in the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) of the Pakistan Medical Commission failed this year.

The data obtained by The News has showed that 20,152 candidates failed the test conducted under the Dow Medical and Health Sciences, while the number of successful candidates was 22,301 in the province.

From Punjab, the largest province of the country, only 7,615 candidates failed while the number of successful candidates was 66,702. The test in Punjab was conducted by the University of Health Science Lahore. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 13,761 candidates failed the test while the number of passed candidates was 29,764, and the test was conducted by the Khyber Medical University.

In Balochistan, 4,857 candidates failed the test while the number of successful candidates was 4,054. Moreover, 1,489, candidates from Islamabad, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan failed the test while the number of passed candidates was 17,349 and this test was conducted by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University Islamabad.

According to the data, a total of 204,259 candidates registered for the test while 188,044 candidates appeared. The number of failed candidates was 47,874 while the number of passed candidates was 140,170. For MBBS and BDS 106,211 candidates passed while only for BDS 33,959 candidates were declared successful, while the overall success ratio was 74.54. The failure rate was 25.46 per cent. Moreover, differences between President Pakistan Medical Commission Dr Naushad Sheikh and Federal Health Minister Qadir Patel are said to have deepened, and as a result Dr Sheikh has reportedly stopped going to the PMC office. According to an officer of the office, he left on November 22 saying that “now I will not come to office again”.

According to close sources, Dr Sheikh was not happy about not being given full powers as well as about interference. The situation worsened when the medical test was conducted by the universities, and compared to other provinces, more than 20,000 students in Sindh failed the test.