Medical admission test: Students demand scrapping of quota, results be republished

Students of several medical colleges, including the Dhaka Medical College, and university students Monday staged a rally and sit-ins programme at the Central Shaheed Minar, demanding republishing the results, scrapping the MBBS admission test results published on Sunday, and to do away with the quota system in the medical admission test.

The students started gathering at the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka this morning, following the programme announced Sunday night. A rally was held around 11:30 am. They left the Shaheed Minar premises at noon.

Later, a team of representatives of the students submitted a memo for Chief Adviser Dr Muhammad Yunus around 3:00 pm. They demanded the medical admission test results to be cancelled by 8:00 pm today and republish it.

Earlier in the day, the students from the rally demanded all types of discriminatory quota, including the freedom fighter and ward quotas, to be cancelled. They also demanded the MBBS admission test results to be republished by today.

One of the protesting students, Ferdous Ahmed Tanim, said, “Many underqualified students have got a chance because of the quota system in the results published yesterday (Sunday). Some of them have got a chance to study at the Dhaka Medical College. The admission of all the students who got the chance under the quota system must be cancelled immediately. We have taken to the streets today so that the quota system is completely cancelled in the future.”

“Why did we have to take to the streets again even after such a huge movement regarding the quota system?” he asked.

Expressing solidarity with the demonstrating students, National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (NITOR) associate professor Idris Ali expressed, “Whereas my son or daughter are not getting the chance to study in medical even after securing 73, a student with 36 of 37 score getting the chance because of freedom fighter quota. Why would there be such discrimination in the changed Bangladesh? We don’t accept this result.”

Taking a dig at the freedom fighter quota, Abir Hossain, a student at Sir Salimullah Medical College, said at the rally, “This year candidates with grandchildren quotas have got chance even though they scored 30-35 marks less than the cut-off marks; we can’t accept this in any way. We want to do away with all forms of quotas including the freedom fighter quota. We demand republishing the results by today cancelling the discriminatory quota system.”

Extending solidarity with the medical students, former coordinator of Anti-Discrimination Student Movement (ADSM) Mahin Sarkar said, “We have been seeing that the irrational and discriminatory quota system has been prevailing in Bangladesh even after the mass uprising. Whereas many got the chance, securing 42 marks, many could not get the chance even after getting 72.”

“There have been some irrational quota systems including ward quota as Dhaka University too. We want all types of discriminatory quota system to be cancelled and the medical admission test results republished within the shortest possible time,” he stressed.

Earlier on Sunday night, the students of Dhaka Medical College demonstrated with the same demands on the premises of the Central Shaheed Minar.

The students of Dhaka University and Bangladesh University Engineering and Technology (BUET) also attended the demonstration.

Earlier on Sunday, the results of the MBBS admission test at government and private medical colleges under the session 2024-25 were published. The pass rate this year is 45.62 per cent.

Of the candidates, 60,095 have passed the admission test. Of them, 5,372 students have been primarily selected for 37 government medical colleges in the country.