The government has raised the benchmark of passing MCQ test to enrolment at medical and dental colleges in Bangladesh.
Director of medical education Prof ABM Abdul Hannan told bdnews24.com from this year minimum 40 marks need to be obtained, instead of previous 20, out of 100 MCQ tests.
But the combined score of 120 out of 200 as the least needed for admission stays.
In the admission system, candidates take a 100-mark MCQ test, scores of which are added to the SSC and HSC GPAs combined.
Prof Hannan said the decision was taken at a meeting on Tuesday with health minister Mohammed Nasim in the chair.
The meeting also formed a committee to find out ways of fixing admission fees at private medical colleges.
The health ministry last year tried to set 40 as the minimum MCQ test mark required for enrolling at any medical and dental colleges. But the move fell flat due to pressure from private medical college owners.
Instead, the ministry fixed a combined score of 120 out of 200 as minimum needed for admission, 10 marks more than the earlier threshold.
The University of Dhaka has been suggesting keeping the minimum entry test mark at 40.
Currently, there are 23 government medical colleges and 55 private medical colleges in Bangladesh.
The number of dental colleges and units is 28 – one government dental college, nine government dental units, and 18 private dental colleges.
Source: Bd news24