New Delhi: Demanding reduction in the qualifying marks for FMGE, members of Parliament are now writing to the Union Health Minister, Dr Harsh Vardhan on behalf of students.
So far, Subhash Chandra Bahediya, Shravan Singh Rao, Darshana Jardosh, DC Goswami and former MP Anbumani Ramadoss have written to the health minister seeking the eligibility mark for Foreign Medical Graduates Examination (FMGE) be reduced to 30%.
The request comes in the backdrop of the fact that backlog of failed students is increasing every year and amid this ongoing COVID-19 pandemic there is a desperate need to doctors in the country.
Earlier, the apex medical regulator in the country, the Medical Council of India (MCI) had been made the same request, some of them claimed in their respective letters.
In the letter to the health minister, the members of parliament emphasized the need to relax government norms to help medical graduates extend their service to the country during the pandemic.
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MP Darshana pointed out, "The volume of the requirement of doctors to cope with the post-COVID-19 pandemic in the country may be unimaginable as perceived by the health professionals and experts. At present too there is a huge requirement of doctors and health staff to contain this pandemic. At this juncture, it may be acknowledged that we have a good number of qualified doctors who have completed MBBS and other higher medical and professional courses from abroad."
Further, ex-MP Ramadoss mentioned, "Around 50,000 medical graduates have completed their education in foreign countries and are awaiting registration in India. Various restrictions and the FMGE, which is deliberately made difficult and nearly impossible to pass, have made their services not available to the Indian public… A large number of students from our country are studying undergraduate medical courses, which is equivalent to MBBS, in Russia, the US, Philippines, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, China, Germany and other countries. Every year, around 10,000 students go abroad to join medical education."
After returning to India, all except those who studied in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have to clear the FMGE to be eligible to register with the Medical Council of India and its state units. "It has made the future of thousands of Indian students, who are studying medicine in foreign countries, a big question mark," he added.
He added that nearly 84% of the students fail in this exam and as they repeat the exam their backlog would manifold over the years.
"The reason for the high failure rates is the very difficult question papers. The question paper is set to such a high standard, which is much above the ones set for local graduates in their qualifying examinations," he said, quotes TOI.
Moreover, MP Bahediya and Rao further pointed out that according to foreign medical graduates, the country is lacking over 40 per cent doctors to contain the epidemic and over 25,000 of them are willing to serve which they are not able to do due to strict norms.
Therefore, in order to bring the FMGE working abroad to India to help to meet the present requirement of doctors In the country, the members have requested to approve the request from MCI to reduce the cut off percentage of FMGE to 30% paving a way to clear such kind of transit test easier than before.
Pertinently, had earlier reported about the details of the dismal pass percentages of candidates in the Foreign Medical Graduate exam (FMGE), that is conducted by the National Board of Examinations. Last year, the Health Minister had released a data as per which while 61,708 foreign MBBS graduates appeared in FMGE between 2015 to 2018, only 8764 have managed to clear the exam.
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