If numbers are to be believed, students from India doing their MBBS from countries like Russia and China are unlikely to become successful doctors. The screening test that they have to give to practice in India says it all.
According to the figures, the passing percentage of the students coming from both Russia and China has been recorded as low as 22 per cent.
The National Board of Examination (NBE), which conducts the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination (screening test) twice in a year (March and September), revealed that 7,854 students who did their under-graduation from Russia appeared in examination held in 2010 and 2011 (March), of which only 1,696 students passed, thereby, recording the passing percentage of 22 per cent.
Similarly, 5185 students after doing their MBBS from China appeared in the examination (2010-2011), out of which only 1,133 students passed the exam.
The test is mandatory for all the students doing UG courses and wanting to practice in India. Unless one passes this test, he/she does not get registered with Medical Council of India and hence cannot practice in India. On the other hand the passing percentage of students doing their MBBS from Nepal has always been better. Dr Bipin Batra, Director, NBS says “They perform better because they follow the same curriculum as in India. In fact most of the faculty is Indian, they teach in same language as India which is one of the reasons that they perform much better than the other countries.”
According to NBE out of 1129 students coming from Nepal in 2010-2011, 359 passed (32 per cent). During the same time 177 students coming from Bangladesh appeared for the exam, of which 88 passed (50 per cent ).
The flip side is that Russia and China are the biggest contributors in imparting medical education to Indians which means maximum of those students who do not get admission in the colleges here in India, go either to Russia and China to study medicine.
As per the NBE 2373 students from Russia appeared for the exam in March 2010, followed by 996 from China. During the same year, in September 2,968 students from Russia appeared for the exam and 1580 students from China. This year in March too, 2,513 students from Russia appeared for the screening test, and 2609 students from China reported for the test. “The passing percentage from both these countries have been dismal,” added Dr Batra.
Officials in the Union health ministry cite that more students go to these countries as education is “not as expensive” as in other countries. They however say that things were different when Russia was USSR. “There were only 7-8 colleges but once USSR broke many colleges sprung up overnight. The students which went before 2002 have got good education from Russia. However the standards came down over the years,” said an official.
With the students performing poorly there have been demands from certin group of candidates from these countries to abolish the exam. This seems unlikely though. The health ministry in fact recently decided to abolish the exam from those coming from five English speaking countries like US, UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia only.
The students are entitled to sit in the screening twice a year from which a well defined syllabus has been approved by the Government of India. The next exam will be held this month.
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