A large number of students on Thursday demanded a fresh examination of the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) on the same day across the country.
The medical aspirants, along with their parents, staged a protest outside the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) building and demanded a fresh test.
They said that the PMC website has been hacked, and the data had been stolen. They said that hacking of the PMC website caused the pilferage of data of thousands of students.
They alleged the PMC vice-president wanted to maintain his hegemony by denying the test afresh and putting the future of thousands of students at risk. After the talks between the commission officials and the protesting students remained unsuccessful, they announced to continue their protest.
Read Govt allows students to take MDCAT prior to grade 12 exams
A heavy baton-wielding contingent of the police had been deployed outside the commission’s building during the protest.
According to the PMC Conduct of Examinations Regulations 2021, any person, being a Pakistani or an overseas Pakistani or foreign national and being 16 years of age or more, shall be eligible to register for and attempt the MDCAT exam. There shall be no restriction on a person having obtained a Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) qualification or equivalent 12th-grade qualification prior to attempting the MDCAT exam.
The regulation states that the board, when formulating the syllabus of the MDCAT exam, shall not be bound to any textbook or HSSC board syllabus and the questions in each exam paper will be randomly selected from the examination question bank.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 24th, 2021.
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