Tag: PMC

  • Sindh lowers passing score to 50 per cent for medical admissions due to doctor shortage

    Sindh lowers passing score to 50 per cent for medical admissions due to doctor shortage

    The Sindh Cabinet has decided to lower the passing percentage in the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) from 65 per cent to 50 per cent for the session of 2021-2022.

    Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah confirmed the news and said, “This decision would not only provide an opportunity to the provincial candidates to seek admission in medical and dental colleges/universities of Sindh but the seats which were going to be unfulfilled/vacant would be utilised.”

    It was reported, that last year with a passing percentage of 60 per cent, 8,287 students passed in Sindh out of which 2,900 took admissions in the public sector. Of the remaining 5,387 students, only 800 took admissions in private medical and dental colleges as the remaining 4,587 were not able to get admission mainly because they could not afford it.

    With this drop in admissions, Sindh will reportedly face a severe shortage of about 10,000 doctors in the next five years. CM said that World Health Organsiation (WHO) recommended one doctor for 850 people but Sindh has one doctor for 3,200 people. “Hence this gap of doctors will worsen if the situation persists,” he added.

    According to Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho, the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) conducted a computerised MDCAT in October 2021. She said, “The test from the federal curriculum puts Sindh students at a disadvantage and resulted in a low pass percentage.”

    The reduction of percentage will not affect the merit as it would remain the same as prescribed under the PMC Act.

  • PMC issues clarification on MDCAT 2021 results controversy

    PMC issues clarification on MDCAT 2021 results controversy

    The Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) released a clarification on the Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT) 2021 results controversy.

    The PMC claimed that it sent out an e-mail before the scheduled time with the result certificates of students who appeared for their MDCAT 2021 due to “a system error”.

    The final MDCAT 2021 results were scheduled to be publicised after 1pm today on PMC’s website.

    But this morning, many students reported that they had received an e-mail from PMC’s noreply e-mail with their MDCAT 2021 result certificate attached, the PMC explained in a tweet.

    The commission explained that the final result was actually to be announced later in the afternoon after the last examination scheduled today in the morning for Covid-affected students.

    The results, it said, were accurate but the commission apologised for its “inadvertent error as it has resulted in concern amongst the students”.
    According to the PMC, an option was provided to download, print, or e-mail the result certificates to students on the PMC website to check their final result.

    “Unfortunately due to an error, the system generated all the result certificates and e-mailed them to students early this morning automatically.”
    The final score in all the result certificates received by students are correct and have been checked, the PMC said, clarifying that although in a small number of certificates e-mailed to students in the morning there are errors in subject marks, the total score is correct.

    This only happened due to the results being generated by the system automatically, PMC said, asking students to ignore these errors.
    Students can recheck and verify their final results once PMC uploads the live results online.