Medical mess

The Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) has become a sad saga which lacks transparency. Now even the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has demanded of the government that it cancel the results of the recently held exams. Students affected by these opaque tests have also been demanding that new tests be held in a transparent manner on a single day across Pakistan. The main problem appears to be that the authorities conducting this contentious test did not take all stakeholders on board before taking such a major decision. First the contract for conducting the exams was awarded to a private firm in violation of the Public Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules. It triggered countrywide protests but the authorities, rather than responding to the demands of candidates sympathetically, used high-handed tactics to squelch the protests.

The authorities failed to act in a responsible manner and that further aggravated the situation. It was a valid objection by various stakeholders that the company had no experience in conducting such exams. Transparency International also raised its concerns about the violation of procurement rules. The company could not manage the process properly and faced administrative problems. This in turn wasted students’ energies and resources in an exercise that ultimately proved to be futile. The company also deprived the applicants of their right to complain; then it also refused to reassess the papers. Holding such a big exercise online required proper homework that was missing and the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) that replaced the good old PMDC started committing one blunder after another. The PMDC used to provide students with a carbon copy of their answer sheet, but the PMC – which has been controversial right from its inception – refused to do so.

Moreover, contrary to past practice, the PMC also did not upload a key on the website so that students could assess their own performance. This could have avoided a lot of argument over scoring the test papers. The government too should not have used force against protesting students, let alone sending many to jail instead of addressing their genuine concerns. A related issue is the National Licensing Examination (NLE) which the PMC – in another highly contested move – has made compulsory for doctors to pass after graduation to start medical practice. The medical education system is in a mess now, like so many other areas that have deteriorated during the past over three years. Instead of applying half-cooked solutions like MDCAT and NLE the government would do better by improving medical education in the country.