Equivalence test: Cuban-returned medical graduates seek exemption

Regulatory body says it will not relax rules under any circumstances.

RAWALPINDI:

The country’s top medical regulator has bluntly told over 900 Pakistani students who obtained medical degrees from Cuban universities that they must pass a local equivalence test before they can practice medicine in Pakistan.

The mandatory National Examination Board (NEB) test will not be waived for anyone, Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) officials told The Express Tribune.

The young doctors, however, continue pressing for exemptions from the test.

Muhammad Aqib Riaz, one of the graduates, said the Cuban government offered scholarships to around 950 Pakistani students after the 2005 earthquake.

Riaz said it took them seven years to complete the degree, including a house job, “but neither the government nor the Higher Education Commission (HEC) welcomed us when we returned.”

Of the seven years spent in Cuba, the grantees, spent one year learning Spanish as it is the medium of instruction in Cuba.

Riaz said the HEC told the students they would have to spend another year preparing for the NEB test.

“We all were bright students and had secured high marks at matriculation and intermediate on the basis of which we were awarded merit scholarships by the HEC,” he said.

“We waited for our children for seven years with the hope they will find good jobs upon their return. The government sent them on scholarships and now they are not willing to accommodate them,” said Riaz’s father.

Muhammad Usman, another graduate who hails from Toba Tek Singh, said 145 out of the 300 Pakistani scholarship awardees in his batch bagged gold medals by securing more than 90 per cent marks in their final exams.

PMDC spokesperson Hina Shoukat told The Express Tribune that the PMDC licensing examination through NEB testing is mandatory for anyone with foreign medical or dental qualification who wants to practice medicine in Pakistan.

Shoukat said the students will not be exempted from the test under any circumstances. “If they claim to be so talented, why are they demanding exemptions?”

She said the Cuban-trained doctors could not write a simple application in English — the language of choice for medical education in Pakistan. “The PMDC will not relax its rules for these students.”

HEC Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmad said the commission has held two meetings with the PMDC to sort out the issue. He offered to arrange six-week training courses for the students if they are willing to sit the exam.

He said the HEC is trying to convince the PMDC to exempt these students from the NEB test and at the same time, it has offered the students funds to prepare for the test.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 1^st, 2014.