Kerala - Alappuzha   

Doctors, students express concern

ALAPPUZHA: Doctors and medical students here have voiced their doubts over the Public Service Commission’s (PSC) reported move to recruit assistant surgeons to the Health Department by conducting interviews without written test.

In a statement here, a group of doctors and students said the PSC would soon conduct interviews and that assistant surgeons would be selected on the basis of marks obtained for the MBBS degree course and an interview.

While 80 per cent weightage would be given for the degree marks, 20 per cent would be given for the performance in the interview.

This, they said, was in contrast to the earlier practice of conducting a written test and selecting candidates on the basis of their performance in the test.

One of the reasons they were opposing the interview included the lack of uniformity in the MBBS examination procedures in the country.

“Unlike other countries, there is no national board that conducts exams here. Different universities in various States have their own examinations. MBBS graduates from outside Kerala and those from other countries (China, Russia etc.) are seen to have obtained higher marks when compared to those who have done their degrees in Kerala,” they said. The lack of uniformity, they added, was the reason why candidates used to be selected ts through written tests.

They pointed out that the PSC’s list of the examination conducted in May 2006 could be considered under the present circumstances. “They had fixed cut-off marks and selected candidates at that time. But many of those selected never joined service. So why cannot they consider the rest of the candidates on that list?” they asked.

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