FMGE cleared by less than 15 per cent Indian students

In India, Indian students have been tapping medical colleges overseas but, however, the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination (FMGE) is cleared by less than 15 percent. The total successful, chances are mostly either from Bangladesh or Mauritius which are not among the most favoured destinations.

As per the analysis of the National Board of Examinations, which conducts the FMGE. The Board has tracked that, 61,708 Indian students are from foreign medical institutions between 2015 and 2018.

Only 14.2 per cent (8,764) clear the test and the pass rates were dismal for students belonging to the colleges in China, Russia and Ukraine.

The total number of students who had appeared for the test was, 87.6 per cent (54,055) were from colleges in seven countries: China, Russia, Bangladesh, Ukraine, Nepal, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

The data shows that 52 per cent (81 of 154) of the students who are from Mauritius had cleared the test, whereas, 27.11 per cent (343 of 1,265) from Bangladesh and 17.68 per cent from Nepal (1,042 of 5,894).

The success rate for students from the colleges in China was 11.67 per cent (2,370 of 20,314), Russia 12.89 per cent and Ukraine 15 per cent (see chart).

According to Dr Vinod Paul, a member (health), NITI Ayog, had said, "The candidates, and their parents and families, must know that the training quality in a majority of foreign institutions is not optimum, specifically in the context of knowledge and skill benchmarks required for practice in India. Therefore, they should think carefully… it is unfortunate that so many of them have to simply sit out after getting a foreign qualification. This is a matter of serious concern."

Currently, in India, there are close to 77,000 MBBS seats. "We are making huge efforts to enhance training opportunities in our own country. We are committed to increasing the capacity in India to 1 lakh seats in the not-so-distant future," said Paul.