A day after Chief Secretary Lila Mani Poudel directed the Ministry of Education (MoE) to play a more proactive role to assure fair MBBS entrance examinations, Krishna Hari Baskota, secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), on Wednesday inspected the ministry’s preparations to conduct the scholarship entrance examinations. He was accompanied by MoE Secretary Somlal Subedi.

“We found the preparations satisfactory. The MoE is progressing as per the directive of the chief secretary,” said Baskota. Following complaints from students and controversies surrounding the distribution of quotas, Poudel, on January 15, asked the MoE to issue written directives to institutes, warning them of strong governmental action if they are found involved in any malpractices during the MBBS entrance examinations.

A letter dispatched by Poudel stated that MBBS education in Nepal has become very expensive and that scholarship exams conducted by universities and academies are careless while grading examination papers.

According to the MoE, 5,966 online forms have been filled for the examination. Each examinee has to pay Rs 500 to sit for the exam. The MoE will conduct the entrance examination on January 19 at seven centres in the Kathmandu Valley.

Secretary Subedi informed that all examination centres had been equipped with CCTV cameras and that he would accompany Minister for Education Dinanath Sharma on an inspection during the examination. The ministry is also planning to release the results in a week, said Subedi. Examinees will be provided with barcoded sheets and all papers will be graded by computers. Students will have two hours to complete 100 questions.

Every year around 300 students receive MoE scholarships, among which around 250 are for MBBS . Those who pass the MoE exam are sent to the medical schools of their choice. All private medical schools are mandated to allocate 10 percent of MBBS seats to MoE students.

source: The Kathmandu post,18 Jan 2013