The National Exit Test or NEXT will become operational on such date, within three years from the date of commencement of the National Medical Commission Act 2019 (NMC), as may be appointed by the Central Government, by notification, the health ministry informed the Parliament last week. According to the Act, a common final year undergraduate medical examination, to be known as the NEXT, will be held for granting licence to practice medicine as medical practitioners and for enrolment in the State Register or the National Register, as the case may be.
The Commission will conduct the NEXT through such designated authority and in such manner as may be specified by regulations.
"The National Exit Test shall become operational on such date, within three years from the date of commencement of this Act, as may be appointed by the Central Government, by notification," the Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan told the Rajya Sabha on February 4, 2020.
Any person with a foreign medical qualification will have to qualify the NEXT for the purpose of obtaining licence to practice medicine as medical practitioner and for enrolment in the State Register or the National Register.
The NEXT will be the basis for admission to the postgraduate broad- speciality medical education in medical institutions which are governed under the provisions of this Act or under any other law for the time being in force and shall be done in such manner as may be specified by regulations, the minister said quoting the rules from the NMC which was passed in August last year.
"The State Government of Tamil Nadu had raised some objections to the National Licentiate Examination during their presentation to the Departmental related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare," the minister said.
"The Standing Committee took cognizance of these observations interalia and after due consideration, recommended in its 109th Report on NMC Bill 2017 that a Common Final Year MBBS Exam may serve as an EXIT test for medical graduates," he added.
The process of setting up the Commission NMC in place of the Medical Council of India for development and regulation of all aspects of medical education, profession and institutions is likely to be over in February this year, Health Ministry sources had told news agency in January.
The NMC Act, which seeks to usher in mega reforms in the medical education sector, received the assent of the president on August 8 and was published the same day.
The Act provides for setting up of an NMC in place of the scam-tainted Medical Council of India.
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