The students appearing for admissions to the medical colleges of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are worried as PMC has removed restrictions of domicile.
The students appearing in the entrance test for admissions to the medical and dental colleges of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are worried about their future as the Pakistan Medical Council (PMC) has removed restrictions of domicile.
According to the students and their parents as well as senior doctors, if the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government didn’t raise voice over the recent decision of Pakistan Medical Council, it would enable the students from Punjab to occupy majority of the seats in private medical and dental colleges in KP. Last year, the federal government had made a similar decision before the entrance test but Governor Shah Farman and Chief Minister Mahmood Khan had taken the matter with the federal government and got the previous domicile policy restored. “This illogical and irrational policy of the Pakistan Medical Council (PMC) would deprive students from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of getting admissions to the few standard private medical and dental colleges. Since Punjab has better and quality education institutions, their students are likely to take most of the seats in private medical and dental colleges in KP,” a former dean of a dental college in Peshawar told The News.
Pleading anonymity, he said Punjab had quality education institutions and the students of KP may not be able to compete with them in open merit. “KP has been stricken by terrorism and poverty. The majority of students in KP don’t have access to the standard education institutions. I am sure our students wouldn’t be able to compete with the students of Punjab. What would happen, they would occupy all seats in the private medical and dental colleges in KP,” he noted with concern. According to officials, the PMC has given this option to the provinces that they can restrict the admission on domicile by exercising own executive powers. The doctor community in KP pointed out that students of Punjab would return to the native province and serve there after completing education. The former dean said there were three standard medical colleges – Rahman Medical College (RMC), Peshawar Medical College (PMC) and Northwest School of Medicine (NSM) that produced good doctors for the province, fearing that if the present policy was not changed, it would deprive the students of KP from getting admission to these colleges.
“Presently for admission to private medical colleges, there will be no restrictions of domicile, and anyone from the whole Pakistan can come to the KP colleges. It means that our own students wouldn’t be able to get admission to good colleges of the province,” said the former dean of a college. In KP, Khyber Medical University (KMU) had announced date for the entrance test of medical and dental colleges in the province in September. According to an official of the KMU, they had even started making arrangements for the entrance test and selected proper places in different districts when PMC intervened and stopped them and other provinces from holding the test. The federal government had dissolved the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PM&DC) and replaced with Pakistan Medical Council (PMC). Different organisations of doctors had earlier criticised the government for allegedly empowering private sector and safeguarding their interests in the new regulatory body, PMC. Also, the PMC has announced to hold the entrance test on same day in the country. The date for the entrance has not been announced yet but it is likely to be held in November.
Another decision made by the PMC that created panic among the students and their parents is that the entrance test would be taken as per the syllabus of National Institute of Medical Sciences (NUMS). “The PMC wants to conduct central exam on the same day all over Pakistan. Course syllabus is different in each province and PMC decided that test will be based on syllabus of NUMS,” said a senior faculty member of the LRH in Peshawar. He said the two decisions of PMC – removing domicile restriction and holding the entrance test on NUMS syllabus caused panic among the students. “Admissions to all private colleges for the 2020-21 sessions will be conducted by the PMC through a centralised automated system strictly on merit with MDCAT being given 50 percent weightage and balance to FSc or alternative high school qualification,” the PMC has announced earlier.
Originally published at the news