Davao med school Indian graduates among India’s board top passers

• Source:https://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1025641
• Wednesday, August 7, 2019

By Rudolph Ian Alama (PIA/RG Alama)

DAVAO CITY - Indian graduates of the Davao Medical School Foundation Inc. (DMSFI) are among the top passers in the Medical Council of India (MCI) screening exams.

The screening exams also known as the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination is a licensure examination for Indian students who studied medicine outside of India. Passing the exams allows them to practice medicine in the country.

Dr. Erwin Rommel Hontiveros, assistant dean of the DMSFI said that 30 out of the top 50 MCI passers are graduates of the DMSF.

“The Indian passing rate is 15% while the DMSF passing rate in the MCI is 86%,” Dr. Hontiveros said.

The DMSFI International Medical Degree (IMD) program graduates have topped the screening test as per records of the MCI, it has topped the 173 medical schools in China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine and other medical schools in the Philippines.

The performance of the Indian students, highlight DMSFI accomplishments as one of the top medical schools in the country. Passing rate for the past four years in the Philippine board exams for physicians is more than 98% and for two years the school has achieved 100% passing rate for the core batches.

Hontiveros attributes the achievement to excellent instruction and competent faculty. And during the medical school's 43rd anniversary the school highlighted its world-class digital simulation center which improves the teaching of clinical competence from second year to fourth year levels.

He added that DMSFI is popular among Indian students as they have the same medium of instruction, same climate, and the performance of the graduates have greatly influenced the students from the subcontinent to come to Davao and enroll in the DMSFI.

Aside from these factors, another influence is the English language which is widely spoken between the two countries.

The MCI has given automatic recognition to DMSFI when an Indian graduate of the Davao medical school topped the MCI screening exams.

Hontiveros said recently they got news that Indian graduates netted 89-90% passing rate in the MCI.

There are 300 Indian students in the second year, 300 students in the third year and 178 students in the fourth year.

According to an Indian embassy data in 2017, about 8,000 Indian students are in the Philippines to study science and medicine with about 4,500 Indians studying medicine at DMSFI.