Medical entrance exams likely to delay due to COVID-19,

Medical entrance exams likely to delay due to COVID-19

Sept. 4: While the Medical Education Commission is prepared to begin the medical education entrance examination for institutions across the country in the ‘common entrance’ modality, the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to delay the initiative.

For the past couple of years, the concerned authorities had been planning to conduct common medical entrance examination but were unable to do so due to different limitations.

Earlier, the Medical Education Commission (MEC) had also directed multiple institutions to not publish their entrance notice in order to conduct common entrance, but the institutions later conducted their own entrance examinations.

“There were delays in endorsing the Medical Education Bill and preparing its regulation because of which common entrance couldn’t be conducted earlier. The commission even had not had its vice-chairman,” said Dilli Ram Luintel, member-secretary at the commission.

However, with the bill endorsed and the appointment of the vice-chairman, the head of the commission’s executive committee, the commission has now prepared itself to hold the common entrance examination for all the medical courses from Bachelor to post-graduate levels.

According to the officials at the commission, the first common medical entrance examination will be held for the post-graduate level. The commission has already decided the seat numbers for the institutions.

There are 397 seats for post-graduate level medical courses in nine different institutions under the Tribhuvan University, 379 seats in nine institutions under the Kathmandu University and 342 seats in five other academies.

The candidates will be allowed to choose the institutions upon their merits during the counseling.

As per the commission, they are close to publish a notice for entrance examination application form for the post-graduate courses soon as the required software and application are almost ready.

“We will start accepting application soon but we will not decide any date for the entrance examination. The date will depend on the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country,” said Luintel. Officials at the commission also added that the homework regarding common entrance for Bachelor level is also being done.

“We are preparing for the common entrance in the Bachelor level as well. The date of entrance for Bachelor level will be decided after the board examination of class 12, which is suspended due to COVID-19, is conducted and the results published,” Luintel added.

source: risingnepal, 4 september 2020