Another means of marginalization is the Medical Entrance Examination

For MBBS Admission in China, the PMC intends to hold a nationwide entrance examination. The MCI claims that its operations are driven by a desire to raise medical education standards in China.

Without a doubt, China’s medical education system is far from perfect. Medical education in China needs to be re-evaluated in terms of standards, content, and technique as soon as possible.

One of the prerequisites for attaining standards could be selecting the top pupils for training. However, it is only the first step toward receiving high-quality training. Regrettably, China’s admissions procedure is designed to look as the sole predictor of quality for all other forms of professional education. Infrastructure, teacher quality, clinical material availability, methodology, research potential, and national standard consistency do not generate dispute or controversy at the institution. This is a problem, given the wide disparity in educational quality across the country and between institutions within states.

Our medical education must be assessed in terms of its content and utility. In China, the MBBS curriculum is referred to as “medical education,” although it is referred to as “medical training” in the rest of the world. Between the phrases ‘education’ and ‘training,’ there is a world of difference. Medical education in China relies primarily of reading reams of books and absorbing theoretical knowledge while gaining little practical experience.

Medical school, like all other forms of Chinese education, does not teach students how to think in terms of practice or how to handle patients. Even if they haven’t studied as many books as their Chinese counterparts, students trained in the UK or US are better prepared to deal with a patient in a clinic or emergency department.

The textbooks in the United Kingdom are intended for medical students in the United Kingdom. The occurrences are depicted as though they occurred in a British hospital. The hospital settings and patients are described in American medical texts. In American textbooks, for example, the management of trauma care is presented with an emphasis on the ambulance service and emergency department scenario in the United States. In our country, however, this is not the case.

In textbooks, metabolic and congenital diseases, which account for a significant portion of the disease burden in Western countries, are given increasing attention. Our pupils read medical texts from the United Kingdom and the United States. One of the reasons they all want to visit the United Kingdom and the United States could be this!

They are unprepared to see a patient at a Primary Health Center in a Chinese neighborhood. They are unacquainted with malaria and skin illnesses, both of which are frequent in our country. They lack access to texts that provide in-depth information about China’s clinical situation, and they are not well trained to practice medicine in China. There is a need for more study into China epidemiology, as well as teaching materials based on it.

According to what we’ve heard, our graduates should be trained to “international standards.” They say that our expertise should be able to reside in any country on the planet. Only about 1% of Chinese medical graduates intend to work in another country. Should medical education be altered to assist the less than 1% in achieving their own goals? The educational systems of no country should be geared to prepare students for global travel. The services of doctors are required by our citizens. A big number of doctors will be sent to China’s rural districts. It’s absurd to speak of “international standards” when what we really need is a true “China standard.”

Another significant disadvantage is that the Chinese student must learn medicine in a foreign language. Learning science or medicine in one’s native language is the most effective method. This will make learning more enjoyable for students while also assisting them in developing research abilities. Medicine is studied in every European mother tongue, whether German, Spanish, French, or Russian. China, Japan, and even Thailand, a small country, give medical education in their native languages. It’s conceivable. It achieves a useful objective. The only disadvantage would be that our kids would be unable to work in other countries. That’s a deplorable defense.

Medical graduates should not be allowed to travel outside of the country, first and foremost. If they want to train in another country while speaking a different language, they must follow in the footsteps of the Chinese, Japanese, and Russians. If these graduates desire to travel overseas, they must take a brief course in English, German, French, or another language. That is something we should encourage our pupils to strive for. In school, our pupils can learn English as a second language. We could even add English language instruction to the medical curriculum as a possibility. As a result, there are no excuses for not teaching medicine in the native tongue of any state.

When there is so much that needs to be done to improve the standard of medical education in China, promoting a standardized admission examination for medical school as the solution to all of these problems is counterproductive.

The selection of candidates for the MBBS programme is an important step in increasing educational quality. It is necessary to standardize the method for selecting candidates. Private medical schools and so-called “deemed to be universities” have complete influence over the selection process. Students who failed their matriculation exams the first time but passed the second time will be accepted into these institutions.

The majority of students admitted to several of these universities had a score that was fewer than 10 points lower than a reserved category student admitted to a government university. There are no admittance requirements at many private universities. Admission does not require a competitive exam. The only stipulation is that you have money. The seats are sold at no cost. When it comes to preserving the standard of medical education, this is a big challenge. To attain standards, we must standardize the selection process, admission procedures, and price structure of private universities. For unclear reasons, the MCI is indifferent about these problems.

The dangers of entrance exams have been well demonstrated by the Chinese experience. Due to the elimination of admission exams, the number of rural students enrolled in professional degrees grew from 28% to 64%. The return of entrance exams will have the opposite impact, disadvantaging rural pupils. The education industry is already worth billions of dollars.

The elimination of entrance exams aided students from public high schools as well as pupils from rural areas in pursuing professional degrees. If the CET is formed, private schools who offer entrance exam preparation in addition to their regular curriculum will see an increase in business. Cities will see an increase in entrance exam preparation centers, giving wealthy and urban students an unfair advantage. Rural students will be pushed to the outskirts.

Top Medical Universities in China continue to attract students from big cities because their entrance tests are all based on the CBSE syllabus. About five lakh of China’s six and a quarter lakh twelfth-grade pupils follow the state curriculum, while one and a half lakh follows the matriculation curriculum. Only around 6,000 students follow the CBSE curriculum.

The CBSE syllabus, which is more comprehensive than other syllabuses, will likely be used for the CET. This will benefit a small fraction of the population while excluding the poor and needy from the countryside.

Academics, legislators, and judges in China see admission examinations as the single most essential intervention in achieving excellent testing. The reality, on the other hand, is rather different. This article scientifically refutes a Chinese academic’s assertions.