The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is expected to change the admission policy for medical and dental colleges, doing away with written tests and offering places on merit of high school exam results, sources said.
However, the new policy will be effective from the 2015-16 academic year, and will not apply to admissions over the next two years.
The proposed policy changes include abolition of written admission tests, admitting students based on secondary school and higher secondary certificate scores, and allowing applications only from fresh high school graduates. The latter would mean that students who defer taking admission by a year or so, will not get the chance to apply to medical colleges.
ABM Abdul Hannan, director of medical education at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), told the Dhaka Tribune friday that the health ministry was going to upgrade the admission policy, but no final decision had been taken about the proposed changes.
He said the ministry would soon meet with the authorities of different public and private medical colleges and seek their opinion about changes in the admission system.
Khondokar Md Sifayetullah, director general of DGHS, said the admission process was stalled due to a writ petition filed with the high court challenging the current admission policy. However, preparations would soon begin for admission, with written tests held centrally, he added. But he did not give any specific date for the tests.
The sources said the health directorate planned to get a stay order on the writ, when the high court, which is now on vacation, reopens on September 15.
They added that the admission process could start even before getting the stay order. Earlier, the directorate had proposed a date for the admission tests in the last week of September. But it would not be possible to take the tests on that day, the sources said on condition of anonymity.
The authorities wanted to hold the tests as soon as possible to stop the business of tutoring for admission tests by private coaching centres, they added.
Moreover, Health Minister AFM Ruhal Hoque had declared that the date of admission tests for medical and dental colleges for the 2013-2014 academic year would be announced as soon as the HSC results were published.
Meanwhile, the coaching centres are apparently happy with the delay in the admission process, with many advertising in different ways to attract students.
Last year, in order to rein in the coaching centres, the health ministry decided to enrol students on the basis of HSC and SSC results instead of admission tests.
However, faced with student protests, the government retracted its decision. A High Court order issued consequently asked the government to return to the previous system.
At present, there are 2,812 seats available at 22 government medical colleges in the country, while 55 private establishments offer 4,800 places. There are one public and 18 private dental colleges with 532 and 1,050 seats respectively.