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The Directorate General of Medical Education (DGME) has suspended MBBS admissions for candidates selected under different quotas in Bangladesh's government and private medical colleges for the 2024-2025 academic year.
The department said quota candidates will be admitted after a high-level government decision, bdnews24.com reports.
A notification signed by the DGME Director (Medical Education) Prof Mohiuddin Matubbar said, “Certificate verification is under way of the candidates initially selected on quotas in government medical colleges for the MBBS course in the 2024-2025 academic year.
“Instructions have been given to suspend the admission process of quota candidates until further notice.”
This time, 269 seats were allocated for children of freedom fighters, martyred freedom fighters and Birangana, and 39 seats for the backward communities in the medical admissions.
DGME Additional Director General Prof Rubina Yasmin said the quota candidates’ admission procedure was discussed in the advisory council meeting on January 30, and they are awaiting its decision.
On January 19, the DGME published the results of the 2024-2025 MBBS admission test, which initially selected 5,372 candidates for admission to 37 public medical colleges in Bangladesh, of which 193 are children of freedom fighters.
Some have criticised the selection of candidates under the quota, arguing that they were chosen despite having lower marks.
A group of students from Dhaka University and Dhaka Medical College Hospital protested at the Central Shaheed Minar on Sunday night, calling the results "discriminatory" and demanding their cancellation.
Then the results of those 193 were suspended.
Rubina had said, "We will verify their documents. A committee has been formed for this purpose. The candidates will come to the ministry with all their documents on January 27, 28, and 29. We will verify if anyone other than the children of freedom fighters remains on the list.”
However, many of the 193 candidates called for verification failed to prove they were children of freedom fighters, said Dr Sayedur Rahman, special assistant to the chief adviser.
He said, “According to the policy, this quota has been kept for the children of freedom fighters. About 49 of the 193 candidates were absent.
“Many who appeared were grandchildren, failing to prove their eligibility.”
DGME Director General Prof Nazmul Hossain said the documents of 74 candidates initially selected under the freedom fighter quota were verified.
Accordingly, 119 candidates were eliminated.
“We checked and verified the documents of 74 people. However, the documents of those 74 will be sent to the district level for further verification.”
He said if these 74 candidates are admitted to medical school, they will make up 1.4 per cent of the total enrolled students.