The authorities have decided to not allow any electronic device such as calculator, mobile phone and wristwatch in examination halls during this year’s medical and dental admission tests, scheduled for October 4.
All of the 22 examination centres around the country would have at least two wall clocks so that examinees could do without having to carry wristwatches, authorities said.
Only the heads of the examination centres, who are generally the principals of the respective medical colleges, and the superintendents of each of the halls would be allowed to carry mobile phones, that too, only to assure smooth coordination of the tests.
The decision was made unanimously in a meeting of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), held Monday at the auditorium of the Institute of Public Health in the capital. Professor Dr Khondokar Md Sifayetullah, director general of the DGHS, presided over the meeting that was attended by high-ranked officials of the directorate and the principals of the public medical colleges.
In the meeting, most of the principals shared their experiences of how students in the past had resorted to unfair means using mobile phones and high-tech wrist watches. They said the students had in the past used the devices to transmit the questions outside and get back the answers.
Till last year, students were allowed to use non-scientific calculators in the medical and dental admission tests. However, the authorities this year have said the questions this year would set in such a style so that the students would not need to use any calculator at all. They would be allowed to do the rough calculations on the questions papers.
Meanwhile, a separate meeting held at the health ministry Monday fixed the last dates for foreign students to apply in the public and private medical and dental colleges. The last date for foreign students to apply in a public med school was fixed at November 25. The last date for applying in private colleges would be December 5.
All information regarding the admission process would be made available in a week on the websites of the DGHS and the health ministry www.dghs.gov.bd and www.mohfw.gov.bd.
The meeting also stipulated that the foreign students would have to apply through the Bangladesh embassies in their respective countries by paying $60 for collecting “certificate equivalents.”
Prof Dr ABM Abdul Hannan, director (medical education) of DGHS, informed that nearly 27,000 students have already registered for the admission tests. The application process opened only four days ago.
Last year, more than 58,000 students applied to attend the medical and dental admission tests.
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.
