‘NExT exam remains under consideration’: RTI reply; NEET PG counselling schedule awaited

NEW DELHI: The National Exit Exam (NExT) exam, which was to replace the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for Postgraduates (NEET PG) and the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) remains under consideration, the Union health ministry replied to an RTI. The ambiguity surrounding “when the NExT exam will be conducted?” has been prevailing since the announcement in 2021.

Activist Vivek Pandey, who has been filing RTIs for clarity on medical education and entrance exam, shared a RTI reply in which the Union ministry of health informed that the NExT exam remains under consideration.

In October last year, a seven-member committee was constituted with approval of the then health minister Mansukh Mandaviya to examine preparedness of states and medical colleges for the implementation of the National Exit Test for final year MBBS students of the 2020 batch. The National Medical Commission (NMC) on July 13 postponed the NExT exam for the 2019 MBBS batch.

NExT exam will be conducted for granting licence to practise as a medical practitioner and for merit-based admission into postgraduate medical courses. The NMC, which replaced the Medical Council of India in 2019 as the apex medical education regulatory body, notified the NExT regulations 2023 and said the exam will be administered in two phases with the NExT Step 1 and NExT Step 2 exams in a year.

As per the regulation, the NExT 2024 exam was scheduled to be held in 2024 for the 2019 batch and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi, the exam conducting body, was going to hold the NExT Step 1 in May and November. It also gave detailed information on the exam pattern for the computer-based test (CBT) and the tentative schedule for conducting the exam. However, in September 2023, the National Board of Examinations in Medical Science (NBEMS) announced the NEET PG 2024 exam date, indicating that the NExT exam will not be held for the academic year 2024-25.

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CBME MBBS curriculum

“75% attendance in the electives and submission of log books maintained during electives is required for eligibility to appear in the university MBBS examination (NExT exam whenever applicable),” the Competency-Based Medical Education Curriculum guidelines (CBME 2024) read.

As per the CBME curriculum guidelines, the NExT Step 1 was expected to be held in March 2028 and NExT Step 2 in March 2029 for the new batch of MBBS students joining medical colleges this year.

Dr Yogender Malik, member of the NMC’s Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB), spoke to Careers360 about NExT exam and other revision in medical education in May 2024 this year and said: “There is no confusion on NExT regulations and we will implement them whenever they are out,” and added that the NEET PG counselling 2024 will be conducted smoothly.

However, the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) has not yet uploaded the NEET PG counselling schedule on the official website, mcc.nic.in. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the NEET PG case against the NBEMS at the end of October.