ISLAMABAD: Two days after the entrance test for medical and dental colleges, candidates and organisers engaged in a blame game on Tuesday, with students accusing the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU) of compromising the quality of the exam while the university dubbing protesting students as ‘proxies’ of teaching academies.

Almost 20,000 candidates appeared for the exam arranged by the SZABMU in Islamabad, Azad Jammu Kashmir, and the international centres of Dubai and Riyadh. The complaints about mismanagement and cheating during the exam were reported in all parts of the country, and many students were also booked for using unfair means.

Against this backdrop, dozens of students gathered in Islamabad to protest the unfair MDCAT practices, particularly the ‘out-of-syllabus questions’, demanding ‘grace marks’ in the exam if a re-test was not possible.

In a press conference, the students urged the university to make the question paper public and appealed to the PM’s health aide for intervention. They also warned they would go to court against the MDCAT.

Students allege ‘cheating mafia’ in SZABMU responsible for ‘out-of-course’ questions; VC dubs protesters ‘proxies’, says ‘cheating conspiracy’ foiled

One student alleged that there was a ‘mafia’ in the medical university dealing with the question papers for the past several years. She claimed that it had been ‘proved’ that the question paper was prepared by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and all the keys by the SZABMU were wrong.

“The HEC was not aware…because the syllabus was prepared by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council,” she said, adding that the difficulty level of the test was kept different for the province and the centre. “Test of the University of Health Sciences (UHS) Punjab was easy,” she said, adding that they had not been provided with the question paper so that they could not prove their claim about the out-of-course questions.

Another candidate said that the exam should be re-conducted for the same fee as the PMDC had charged them Rs8,000 for the test. The students claimed that at least 20 questions were not part of the syllabus. Speaking about their fellows who were caught cheating using Bluetooth devices, they claimed a number of students were caught but there could be more who weren’t detected.

Another allegation levelled by the students was the presence ‘mafia’ in the medical university that allegedly facilitated cheating by ensuring an ‘out-of-syllabus’ question paper in the exam, which would then be sold to students ahead of the test.

‘Protest at behest of academies’

The vice-chancellor of SZABMU, Dr Tariq Iqbal, took exception to these allegations and claimed the students were protesting at the behest of teaching academies, which had received Rs2 to Rs2.5 million from each student giving them assurances of good marks and facilitation during the test.

“It was the first time we caught 15 candidates with Bluetooth devices and registered the FIRs against them. Academies mafia has given assurance that the question paper would be leaked. Two persons were planted to leak the question paper but they were caught,” he said.

He said that the Intelligence Bureau and some other agencies cooperated to stop the cheating conspiracy, adding that some academies allegedly introduced a YouTube channel on which instructions were being given to candidates and all students were filing similar complaints that the question paper was out of course.

Replying to a question, Dr Tariq said that it was the policy of the HEC not to share the question paper as it compromised the question bank. He claimed that academies wanted to get the question paper so they would prepare students according to those questions.

When asked why the result was not being announced, he said that SZABMU also conducted tests in Saudi Arabia and the UAE and it took time to shift answer sheets from these countries. He, however, hoped that the result would be announced by Friday.

“There were 28 centres in Islamabad and none, out of 18,000, students protested the first day. However then suddenly students started protests,” Dr Tariq said.

A faculty member, wishing not to be named, said that the question paper should be made public as a question bank having over 200,000 questions cannot be compromised by sharing 200 questions. “Even if academies are behind the allegation that the questions were out of course, the university should respond to the allegation rather than accusing the academies,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2024