ISLAMABAD: Determined to improve the admission percentage, the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) has finally called a meeting to find out ways to address the rising number of vacant seats in medical and dental colleges.

In February, the PMC had announced that for the first time in the country’s history, over 28pc or 5,873 seats in public sector and private medical and dental colleges could not be filled. Therefore, it approved a special policy to fill the vacant seats for the 2021-22 session.

According to a document available with Dawn, 1,566 seats remained vacant in Sindh, 1,331 in Punjab, 72 in Balochistan, 58 in Islamabad and 51 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

The situation was almost similar last year due to which the Sindh government decided to reduce the pass percentage of Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT-2021) from 65pc to 50pc.

Over 5,500 seats in public, private colleges could not be filled last year

However, the PMC issued advertisements, announcing that students having less than 65pc marks in MDCAT would not be registered.

According to a statement issued by the PMC on Saturday, a meeting of dental colleges in Sindh will be held on May 11 and a seminar of all dental colleges across the country on May 12 to discuss the issue of reduction in the number of admissions.

“In this regard, a letter has been received from the president of the Association of Private Medical and Dental Institutions (PAMI) Sindh chapter which sets out proposals that will be discussed in the meeting along with other issues,” the statement said, adding one of the key proposals put forth by PAMI Sindh was to remove the ‘conflict of interest’ clause from the PMC Act 2020 and consequently allow those regulated to be part of the regulator and decision making.

It further said PAMI Sindh had proposed removal of the requirement to qualify the MDCAT for admission and consequent grant of a medical licence.

“Similar issues were raised by the Sindh government on which a report was sought by the Ministry of Health from the commission. The commission submitted a detailed report addressing all the concerns. It included the suggestion that all provinces and sectors would have representation and presence in the commission with nominated members as part of the National Academic Board,” the statement said, adding that it was the academic board that primarily formulated the standards of education, including curriculum and examination standards such as MDCAT.

It said the report also addressed the concerns raised by the Sindh government regarding lowering the pass percentage of MDCAT which was determined by the academic board and the subsequent decisions of the larger bench of the Sindh High Court and an earlier decision of the Supreme Court.

“However, to address these issues for future admissions the commission will be seeking proposals from the dental colleges and forward these to the academic board for its consideration,” it stated.

PMC stated that MDCAT 2021 was conducted in 25 centres across 22 cities in the country and in six international centres.

The MDCAT curriculum was prepared by the academic board which consists of highly respected senior educationists with the help of experts from different provincial education boards and verified by the Inter-Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC) to ensure that it has no topics that are not covered in the curriculum of any provincial board.

To address this concern, the commission has scheduled a national conference on May 21 regarding the MDCAT curriculum and has invited education departments from all provinces and the federation to participate in it and assess the existing MDCAT curriculum, it said.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2022