Students of Hamirpur Medical College End Week-long Silent Protest Against NExT
Final-year medical students at Dr. Radha Krishnana Medical College concluded their week-long silent protest against the National Exit Test (NExT) on Friday. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya assured the students that the 2019 MBBS batch would not be affected by NExT, which received a positive response from the students. Nevertheless, they voiced their opposition to the test for any batch and expressed their intention to challenge it in court. On Friday morning, the students engaged with the media outside the college campus.
During the interaction, a spokesperson for the protesting students demanded that they be granted degrees, licenses, and registration to practice medicine. They emphasized that any injustice against the students would not be tolerated, and they were prepared to fight the issue legally. As per the NMC Act, NExT serves multiple purposes, including being a qualifying exam for final-year MBBS students, a licensure exam for practicing modern medicine, a merit-based admission test for postgraduate courses, and a screening exam for foreign medical graduates seeking to practice in India.
Previously, the National Medical Commission announced that the NExT for the 2019 batch of final-year MBBS students would take place next year in two phases, namely NExT Step 1 and NExT Step 2, tentatively scheduled for May and November. The students opposed this decision, arguing that competing in a national-level examination with such short notice while simultaneously fulfilling college attendance and academic requirements was unjust. They pointed out that preparing for a postgraduate-level entrance exam covering 19 subjects in just six months, while maintaining 75 percent attendance, completing logbooks, delivering seminars, and attending clinics, was an unreasonable expectation.
The students claimed that the notification regarding the NExT was a clear violation of Section 49 of the National Medical Commission (NMC) Act of 2019. They stated that during their admission in 2019, the curriculum made no mention of the NExT exam.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) also opposed the implementation of NExT, stating that it would not be feasible until the NMC established uniform education standards across medical colleges in India. During an interaction with students at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Raipur, Health Minister Mandaviya assured that the government and NMC would not make decisions that create confusion. When asked about the additional stress NExT might cause for medical students, Mandaviya clarified that the 2019 batch would not be included in NExT and that the test would not take place this year. He further explained that the final exam would not be considered equivalent to NExT, emphasizing that while the degree would be granted, registration would only occur upon passing NExT. In essence, NExT was compared to NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test).