KARACHI: Sindh Cabinet reduced the passing percentage for MBBS/BDS admissions from 65% to 50% for session 2021-2022.
Syed Murad Ali Shah, Chief Minister of Sindh, presided over the cabinet meeting recently at CM House, and stated, "This decision would not only provide an opportunity to the provincial candidates to seek admission in medical and dental colleges/universities of Sindh, but the seats which were going to be unfulfilled/vacant would be utilised."
The meeting was attended by Mumtaz Shah, Chief Secretary, Sindh, Mohsin Naqvi, Chairman Planning and Development (P&D) Board, Sajid Jamal Abro, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister (PSCM), provincial ministers, advisors, special assistants, and other concerned officials.
The cabinet was told that after the substitution of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), the National Assembly approved Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) Act to regulate the medical profession, medical education and recognise medical and dental qualifications all over Pakistan.
Dr Azra Pechuho, Minister of Health, Sindh, stated that Section 16(f) of PMC 2020 provided powers to PMC to conduct all examinations. In contrast, Section 18(3) provided that public colleges' admission to medical or dental programs is to be structured as per the policy of the provincial governments. In PMC Act 2020, no passing or failing percentage is transcribed for MDCAT.
She further elucidated that as per new provincial policy, the marks acquired by a student in the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) conducted by the authority would be minimum of 50 per cent of the weightage for the purposes of admission in the public colleges.
Dr Azra Pechuho further stated that PMC conducted a computer-based MDCAT-2021 exams in October 2021, based on the federal curriculum on different dates. The test from the federal curriculum harmed the results of students of Sindh.
She highlighted the vacancy of 1800 seats. Additionally, 1300 candidates got admission from other provinces at the private universities, while 492 seats remained unfilled.
She expressed that with this growing trend of lesser admissions, Sindh would encounter a severe shortage of about 10,000 doctors in the upcoming five years.
Sindh Chief Minister stated that World Health Organization (WHO) recommended one doctor against 850 people, whereas Sindh had one doctor against 3200 people. He further acknowledged, "Hence this gap of availability of doctors will further worsen in the future if the situation persists."
Minister of Health articulated that she held several meetings with the Vice-Chancellors of public medical and dental universities and with the Pakistan Association of Medical and Dental Institutions, wherein it was decided with the consensus that in order to fill the total seats, passing percentage of MDCAT-2021 would be slashed from existing 65 per cent to 50 per cent. Dr Azra Pechuho informed that the request to lower the passing percentage was not only communicated in writing to the President, PMC, but a delegation from Sindh also met him to explain the situation, but no response was received from PMC.