Senate panel calls for deferring MDCAT test
Students are seen taking the entry test for admission to medical colleges at a centre on Lawrence Road on Sunday. PHOTO: SHAFIQ MALIK/EXPRESS
The Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services (NHS) on Thursday called for de-ferring the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) entry test, whether to be conducted by provinces of the federal government, for at least two months in the wake of recent floods.
Committee Chairman Senator Dr Muhammad Humayun also maintained that the MDCAT exams should also be conducted as per the PMDC bill, which is yet to become an act.
Earlier, the senate body approved the amendment bill to restore the defunct Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) by abolishing the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC).The committee chairman said that since the bill was to be passed eventually, “we support the government in the larger interest of the students.”
He said that there was no point in keeping the students uncertain.Senator Bahramand Khan Tangi said that students were already suffering from psychological issues due to the coronavirus and now by the floods. Senator Rubina Khalid said that the students were in no position to appear in the exams anytime soon.
The committee urged the health ministry to take appropriate steps to ease the pain of the students of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, who have been affected by floods.The special secretary to the health ministry informed the panel that the entry test for students of Balochistan and K-P has been delayed till September 14.
He said that further delay was expected due to floods and the impending decision on the PMDC bill.The Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services Regulations
and Coordination also raised the issue of children below 10 years of age suffering from Anemia and stunted growth.
The committee was told that Pakistan was among the countries in the world with the highest burden of malnutrition.According to National Survey (NNS) 2018, it was told, an estimated 40.2 per cent of children under the age of five years were chronically malnourished and nearly 17.7 per cent were acutely malnourished and both these figures exceed the WHO emergency threshold levels.
The ministry said that the nutrition wing in col-laboration with provincial departments of health, UN agencies and NGOs was working on stunting prevention, counselling and supplementation for prevention, infant and young children feeding, breastfeeding promotion and protection, community management of acute malnutrition and food fortification through the National Fortification Alliance, Adolescent Nutrition and Elimination of Trans-Fatty Acids.
The Senate panel also took up the application of Sahibzada Abu Zar, a 2nd-year medical student studying in Ukraine, seeking to accommodate Pakistan medical students, who had suffered due to war and now seeking admission to Pakistani medical colleges.
Pakistani Ukrainian students have requested an exemption from the National Equivalency Board Exam (NEB) based on an extraordinary situation.
PMC officials proposed that as a special case, the Council has considered the subject matter and approved a policy to adjust Pakistani students studying in Ukrainian medical institutions, seeking transfer to necessarily undergo the NEB exam with certain exemption only for the 2021-2022 session and all admission will be subject to the availability of vacant seats and rules of the universities concerned.
The committee directed the Council to facilitate the Russia-Ukrainian war-affected students and make all updates and syllabi available on the website for timely correspondence.