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The Sindh Cabinet has decided to lower the percentage for passing the Medical and Dental College or MDCAT-2021 admission test from 65 percent to 50 percent to allow candidates with at least 50 percent to be admitted to the 2021-2022 session.
“This decision would not only give the provincial candidates the opportunity to apply to medical and dental colleges / universities of Sindh, but the vacancies would be used.”
This is what Sindh Prime Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said as he chaired a cabinet meeting here at the CM House on Thursday. The meeting was attended by provincial ministers, advisers, special assistants, chief secretary Mumtaz Shah, chairman P&D Mohsin Naqvi, PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro and other officials.
Following the supersession of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), the National Assembly passed the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) law regulating the medical profession, medical education and recognition of medical and dental qualifications throughout Pakistan.
Section 16 (f) of the new PMC 2020 authorizes the PMC to conduct all tests. Section 18 (3) states that admission to medical or dental courses offered by public universities must be regulated in accordance with the guidelines of the provincial governments.
“Grades that a student has received in the MDCAT carried out by the agency must make up at least 50 percent of the weighting for admission to the public universities,” said the Minister of Health. “Therefore, the PMC Act 2020 does not mention a pass or fail percentage in the eligibility criteria for the Medical and Dental College (MDCAT) admission test. Likewise, no minimum number of points is mentioned, which is currently 65 percent. “
According to Minister of Health Dr. Azra Pechuho, the PMC conducted a computer-aided MDCAT 2021 exam based on the federal curriculum on various dates in October 2021. “The federal curriculum test put Sindh students at a disadvantage and resulted in a low pass rate,” she said. Last year the percentage of passing the MDCAT test was 60 percent, while this requirement was unilaterally increased to 65 percent this year. As a result, the total number of qualified students last year was 8,287 (32.8 percent), while in MDCAT 2021 7,797 (22.4 percent) qualified.
The total number of seats in medical and dental colleges (public and private) in Sindh is 5,490. Last year, with a 60 percent passing percentage in MDCAT, 8,287 students passed Sindh, of which 2,900 were admitted to public sector medical and dental colleges. Of the remaining 5,387 students, about 800 were admitted to private medical and dental colleges, and the remaining 4,587 were unable to get admission mainly because they could not afford it.
Around 1,800 seats remained vacant and the private sector received 1,300 candidates from other provinces, while 492 seats remained vacant. With this drop in approvals, Sindh will face a serious shortage of approximately 10,000 doctors over the next five years.
Sindh Prime Minister said WHO recommended one doctor for 850 people, but Sindh has one doctor for 3,200 people. “So if the situation continues, this doctor gap will worsen,” he said.
The health minister said she had held several meetings with the vice chancellors of public medical and dental universities and with the Pakistani Association of Medical and Dental Institutions (Sindh). They decided that the passing percentage for MDCAT-2021 should be lowered from 65 percent to 50 percent in order to fill all the seats.
Dr. Azra Pechuho said that the request to lower the percentage had not only been sent in writing to the PMC President, but that a delegation from Sindh met him. The PMC did not respond.
With this in mind, the Cabinet decided to lower the percentage for passing the MDCAT 2021, and candidates with at least 50 percent can be considered eligible for admission in the 2021-2022 session, while the weighting of the MDCAT 2021 in relation to the Overall performance remains the same as prescribed by the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) law.
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