New Delhi: The National Exit Test (NExT), a proposed examination for final-year MBBS students in India to obtain a licence to practise will be held from next year onwards. Only those who pass this new exam would be able to practise allopathic medicine in the country.
The plan is to conduct the NExT exam for the candidates who complete their MBBS course in 2023. There will be a mock test beforehand to make the candidates familiar with the examination pattern.
The test will reportedly be conducted by the National Board of Examination. Meanwhile, National Testing Agency too is being considered for this.
The officials of the central health ministry said that the planning for the new exam are in the final stages.
Benefits
Besides obtaining the licence to practise for the final year MBBS students, the scores of this test would be considered while preparing the merit list of post-graduate (PG) medical entrance.
This test would be an alternative for the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination, the licensing exam for medical graduates who have completed MBBS courses from foreign universities.
With the introduction of NExT, national-level entrance tests like National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test– Post-Graduate (NEET-PG) would cease to exist.
The central government had earlier noted that the admission to the PG courses in many major institutes including All-India Institute of Medical Sciences would be based on the NExT scores.
A major advantage is that candidates can attend this exam more than once to improve their rank.
The recommendation for NExT was mentioned in the National Medical Commission Act of 2019 passed by the Indian Parliament.