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Students protest continues against MDCAT exams at D-Chowk

Students on Sunday continued their protest at D-Chowk against alleged technical faults and irregularities in the Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT), demanding the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) to immediately address their concerns related to the exams.

The protesters demanded of the bodies concerned to take notice of injustice, discrimination, and wrongdoings in the ongoing MDCAT examination.

They urged to immediately stop this defective test system and announce to hold merit-based fresh exams as according to protesters PMC staff was involved in deceitful practices to favour blue-eyed candidates while a majority of brilliant students got unexpected low marks.

The protesters, who gathered at D-Chowk after holding a protest outside the PMC building in Islamabad, claimed that thousands of students were declared fail and at the same time had been deprived of the right to challenge the exam.

One of the protesters said it was unfortunate that some of the students, who had topped in their respective boards and provinces or secured seven A grades, were declared fail in MDCAT.

The protesters warned the PMC to address the issue otherwise they would protest again and might even go for a sit-in. They said questions should be selected from within the syllabus and exams should be held on a single day so that all students get similar question papers and equal opportunity.

They appealed the Prime Minister Imran Khan to intervene in the issue and protect their future.

Talking to World Health News, protesting students said that the Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) did not have the correct option. “Some MCQs had the correct options, yet marked the student’s answer as incorrect.”

Aleena Khan, a student claimed that the test was based on questions outside of the syllabus. “How we can answer those questions which we never studied,” she added.

Khalid Naeem, another student said, “Medical students are under stress over the online testing system. Due to the faulty exam system, many students received low marks, thus diminishing their chances of a lucrative medical career.”

Student Tuba Nabeel said, “PMC and MDCAT are actively ruining our lives and futures. Our parents are upset and we as students are in a state of shock as we were not expecting such massive level delinquencies in the country’s most systematized examination system which proved to be erroneous.

Tahir Malik, another student said,” They are not able to secure their website, so how will they be able to secure our future. “PMC people should accept their failure in conduct of error-free MDCAT exams and as against the expectations of the students.”

He added, “Rather than addressing our concerns and satisfying us, PMC high-ups are still busy in wrongly justifying this exam in the media and in the general public.”  He said 25 to 30 questions were out of course in every exam and the PMC was informed about it but they were not given a satisfactory reply.

It is important to note that students who appeared at the beginning of September-2021 had only the span of one month for the preparation of the said entry test. On the other hand, those appearing at the end of September-2021 will enjoy the length of almost two months for the preparation, leading to discrimination in contravention to Article 25 of the Constitution.

Therefore, most students are demanding the government to restore the previous procedure of the test.

 It is worth mentioning here that the PMC is already facing criticism for giving the contract of the computer-based MDCAT to a company that was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) after the expiry of the last date to submit applications.

In July, Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) had demanded PMC president as well as the government to take notice of the violations of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules in the award of the MDCAT contract.

The TIP letter, which is available with WHN, was addressed to PMC President Dr Arshad Taqi and its copies were sent to the prime minister’s principal secretary, NAB chairman, Auditor General of Pakistan, PPRA managing director, and the registrar Supreme Court of Pakistan.

The letter stated that the commission had awarded millions of rupees worth of contract for conducting examinations to a service provider firm, incorporated in the SECP, after the advertisement date.

When contacted, the PMC spokesperson said that the question bank has been prepared by specialists in their fields to ensure every question meets the standards set by the regulatory body. Furthermore, the MDCAT question bank was diligently reviewed by experts before the examination.

He added, PMC held two separate reviews to cross-check the complete bank before the final MDCAT, thus the answer key is 100% correct and the rumours circulating regarding it are completely false and baseless.

He said that the MDCAT is designed to assess the ability of the applicant to pursue a medical or dental education. It is expected a potential student can apply their knowledge based on recall and cognitive learning.

“Thus the questions are from the syllabus, but they are framed in a manner whereby the applicant is expected to apply the concepts learned not just memorize texts. The syllabus of the MDCAT and the breakdown of each subject is available on the PMC website.”

He said that all final answers selected by the student when the exam time ends are fully recorded and scored while the examination system is not dependent on an open external internet therefore there should exist no concern regarding the internet failure or reboot etc. during the exam.