Its Final: NEXT Will Be Applicable From 2024, Health Ministry Releases Gazette

Ending all suspense around the applicability of the NExT exam, the Union Health Ministry has invoked the provisions of the National Medical Commission (NMC) Act, which has now extended the time limit for conducting the National Exit Test (NExT) to September 2024.

Confirming this effect comes from a recent gazette released by the Union Health Ministry imposing an "amendment in NMC Act, 2019 under removal of Difficulty Clause."

Section 15 of the NMC Act provides for the conduct of a standard final year undergraduate examination, to be known as the National Exit Test (NExT), which shall be the basis for Registration to practice medicine, admission to PG medical courses and Screening Tests for foreign medical graduates to practice modern medicine.

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The NExT was supposed to be operational within three years from the commencement of the NMC Act, 2019, i.e. September 25, 2022, and conducted through a designated authority and in such a manner as may be specified by regulations. The Act came into force in September 2020.

Though there is no official word so far that the NExT exam will not be held in 2023, the Union Health Ministry's gazette notification on September 23 invoking section 59 of the National Medical Commission (NMC) Act states the regulations for conducting the NEXT yet to be framed and formation of examination cell is under process.

As per the gazette notification, "Even after almost two years, regulations in the matter are yet to be framed and also the constitution of the Examination Cell is under process. Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 59 of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, the Central Government hereby made the following Order, to remove the above-said difficulties," namely:

" In sub-section (3) of section 15 of the Act, for the words, "three years", the words "four years" shall be substituted."

"This order may be called the National Medical Commission first (Removal of Difficulties) order, 2022, and shall come into force on the date of its publication in the Official Gazette," the gazette added.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that NExT, a common exit exam envisaged by the government to standardize medical education across the country, was proposed by NMC as a part of the bill passed in 2019. The exam is set to replace the NEET PG and FMGE exams.

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The NEXT exam would not only serve as a licentiate exam for those who have done MBBS in India and abroad but would also serve as a gateway to admission to the Postgraduate broad-speciality medical education in the country. In other words, MBBS graduates will have to complete their final internship to earn the licence to practise as a doctor in India. Besides, Foreign Medical Graduates (FMGs) must qualify through the exam after it becomes operational to get Registration with State Medical Councils for practising as a doctor in India.

In addition, to get admission to MD, MS, DM, and MCh programmes, the doctors will have to qualify for the NEXT instead of NEET PG once it initiates.

Earlier, there were speculations that the NEXT set to be implemented from this will be delayed by one year. The top officials of the Union Health Ministry have also mentioned that there is still no clarity regarding which of the National Medical Commission (NMC) and the National Board of Examinations (NBE) shall conduct the centralized exit exam.

Officials in the Union Health Ministry and the NMC pointed out that the Commission is not yet fully prepared for introducing NEXT because several decisions regarding the conduction of the test are yet to be taken.

Such unresolved issues include the agency in charge of conducting NEXT, the framework of NEXT, the syllabus and the confusion about whether the test shall be an analytical or multiple choice questions-based exam. Besides, the students will also require enough time to prepare and adjust to this new system.

"Conducting an exam requires preparations such as working out the modalities and deciding on the syllabus, type and pattern of the exam on whether it will be an analytical or a multiple choice questions-based test and number of tests and requisite regulations etc," officials told PTI.

Students also need adequate time to prepare for the new exam, adding mock tests that need to be held and deciding which agency will conduct the exam. "The importance of the NExt exam lies in the fact that it will be the same for every MBBS student, whether trained in India or abroad and hence it will solve the problem of foreign medical graduates (FMGs)," officials added.

NEET-PG is conducted around April or May of every year, and as NExT is supposed to replace it, the exam has to be conducted in April or May. However, earlier this month, giving the final stand on whether MBBS pass-outs will be appearing for NEET PG 2023 or NExT exam as a gateway to Postgraduate Medical courses, the National Board of Examinations (NBE) gave its verdict stating that it will be conducting NEET PG exam next year.