The latest decision of Sindh Government regarding educational institutions has hurt the sentiments of MDCAT 2020 students, as they too demand postponement in their aptitude examinations. Owing to this, #delayMDCAT is trending on twitter in Pakistan.
Schools, colleges and other institutions in Sindh had to face an unexpected halt owing to the novel pandemic. Likewise, the medical and dental college admission tests MDCAT 2020, was also affected. The Corona virus vacations, that initiated from 1st March ended after almost seven months on 15th September, continuing the education structure. However, the timings of the classes were reduced to 3 hours and thrice a week.
After two months of in-campus examinations and lockdown termination, the corona virus affected cases experienced a sudden spike, welcoming the second wave of the lethal disease into the country. As a result, immediate decision to close educational institutions was taken by Sindh and federal government. Hence, all the operating educational institutions, be it school, college or even universities, are ordered to switch to online schooling from 26th November.
The students all over Sindh celebrate the decision. However pre-medical students are not so content and here is why. According to the latest announcements regarding education, he Medical and Dental College Admission Test, MDCAT 2020 is to be conducted as per schedule, on November 29, under the strict implementation of coronavirus standard operating procedures (SOPs.)
Delay in MDCAT 2020
Students to appear in MDCAT 2020 have been experiencing back to back issues, concerning the examinations. With NTS dissolved and new Pakistan Medical Commission [PMC] formed, establishing a fair examination policy has been a tough call for the authorities. Hence, this adds to the piles of reasons, delaying the future doctors’ admissions.
The previous date for the MDCAT 2020 was November 15th; however finalizing the syllabus was another issue at hand. Consequently, Sindh High Court postponed the date and later PMC announced new date for test conduction to be 29th November.
The syllabus for an exam like ‘medical college aptitude’ was finalized 10 days before. Likewise, the sudden announcement caused a stir among pre-medical students, as they raised their voice, against the injustice, demanding a delay in MDCAT 2020.
Final Date for MDCAT 2020
Nevertheless, according to the latest instructions from Sindh High Court, no changes in designated date were made and the aptitude test will be conducted as schedule on November 29th.
In latest hearing, Petitioner’s lawyer Mohammad Jibran Nasir said the syllabus was announced after the high court issued a contempt notice to the commission on November 21.
In a tweet, Nasir said the board had approved the same syllabus and no out of syllabus question would make it to the test. He added that the high court had remarked students can approach the bench if aggrieved with test content.
In addition, the notification released by SHC, clearly states:
“This is quite a unique idea that every applicant will be provided objection form at the time of entering into the examination hall, so first he should be obliged to do audit exercise as to how many questions are out of his syllabus.”
“Much time of the candidate would be lapsed and consumed to go through the entire question paper as an examiner and then filling the objection forms.”
“No further mechanism has been provided in the above announcement as to how and when the students appearing in the MDCAT will come to know whether objections raised by them were considered and the question considered by them to be outside the identified syllabus have been removed from scoring or not.”
Read More: Smart Lockdown imposed in Hyderabad from today
Twitter floods with #delayMDCAT2020 & #MDCAT2020
SHC and PMC appears to have solved the syllabus issue of the students. However, strict SOPs implementation at such peak time of the virus is still a matter of concern. Thus, MDCAT students have once again switched to the twitter handle, as they request a delay in MDCAT 2020 examination.