The government has failed to set 40 as the minimum MCQ test mark required for enrolling at any medical and dental colleges in Bangladesh.
Instead, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Monday fixed a combined score of 120 out of 200 as minimum needed for admission, 10 marks more than last year’s cut-off.
The decision came in a meeting at the Secretariat chaired by minister AFM Ruhal Haque.
The University of Dhaka suggested keeping the minimum entry test mark at 40.
Officials present at the meeting told bdnews24.com that owners of the mushrooming private medical colleges in Bangladesh had been pressuring the government not to increase the cut-off mark.
But the new combined threshold means one can become eligible by scoring as low as only 20, if they obtain two maximum GPAs, meaning 100.
In the current admission system, candidates sit a 100-mark MCQ test, scores of which are added to the SSC and HSC GPAs combined.
The Health Minister told bdnews24.com that the government would not introduce anything new at this moment. “We want to continue with the current system,” he said.
Officials said the minister feared repetition of last year’s events in which street protests by aspiring medical students had forced him to revoke a decision. Initially, it had been decided to annul admission test but the step was later withdrawn.
The owners of private medical colleges have been pushing the government to keep the minimum scores as low as possible since they do not get enough students to fill up available seats.
Prof Rashid-e-Mahbub, a former President of the Bangladesh Medical Association, criticised the move.
Mahbub, who is also a health-rights activist, said they had demanded that 30 or 40 be set as the cut-off.
“Our focus should be on ensuring the quality students, not the filling of seats,” he said.
He said present situation had arisen because the government allowed private medical colleges to be set up ‘indiscriminately’.
During the present government’s tenure, the number of medical colleges increased by 29.41 percent in the government sector and 65.62 percent in the private sector.
Currently, 22 government medical colleges have 2,811 seats, while 53 private medical colleges have been allowed to enroll 4,800 students.
Nine government dental colleges offer 532 seats, while 18 private dental colleges can enroll 165 students.
The Health Minister had said last year that he would not approve any new medical colleges, for he believed the “existing medical colleges are enough to produce doctors needed for the country”.
The combined medical and dental college admission test for both public and private medical colleges will be held on Oct 4.
Source: Bd news24
