Nepal Medical Council (NMC) says those wishing to pursue MBBS in foreign countries must obtain at least 50 percent marks in entrance exams of Nepali universities before they are granted approval letter to go abroad.

NMC implemented mandatory screening tests from this year for students headed abroad and said the new provision was approved by the Ministry of Education (MoE) on Tuesday.

Until now, students wishing to obtain MBBS degree from foreign countries did not have to appear in entrance tests and as a result hundreds of students unable to pass entrance exam in Nepal are studying MBBS in foreign universities.

“It will be implemented immediately, and students who are trying to go abroad for the academic year 2012/13 have to passed entrance exams first,” said Dr Damodar Gajurel, chief of NMC.

He said students must pass MBBS and BDS entrance exam either from Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu University, BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences or the scholarship exam of ministry for MBBS.

“We brought in such a provision to check incapable students from become doctors,” NMC Registrar Dr Nilamani Upadhya said adding, “Quality of doctors, who obtained their qualifications abroad, is very poor in the comparison to doctors produced by medical colleges in Nepal.”

According to council, more than 500 students go abroad each year to pursue studies in medicine. Among them 60 percent go to Bangladesh and remaining go to China and other countries. The council claimed that 70 percent of students who studied in Chinese universities cannot pass licensing test of council.

“Some students who got MBBS degree from foreign universities do not even have the basic knowledge of the medicine” he added. NMC license is mandatoy for doctors to practice in Nepal.

source:republica, 29 March 2012