SLMC SAYS NO CHANGE IN ERPM PASS MARK

The Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) yesterday rejected claims that the SLMC had decided to bring down the pass mark of the Examination for Registration to Practise Medicine in Sri Lanka (ERPM) amidst protests by doctors.

The Government Medical Officers Association recently charged that SLMC Chief Prof. Carlo Fonseka had assured parents that it would negotiate the possibilities of bringing down the pass mark of the ERPM.

Foreign qualified medical graduates can obtain a licence to practise medicine in Sri Lanka only if they pass the ERPM.

However SLMC Registrar Dr. N.J. Nonis said that during the Council’s last meeting on January 25 it was decided that there would be no change in the pass mark for the exam. The pass mark for the ERMP was brought down from 50% to 44.5% in April last year and remained unchanged during exams in August last year. “The pass mark will remain the same there; will be no changes,” Nonis said.

He said that a group of parents had spoken with Prof. Fonseka last week but that he did not know the particulars of the discussions. Meanwhile, the Parents Association of Foreign Qualified Medical Graduates said that parents had proposed to standardize the pass mark. The association’s Convener Dr. Lalith Chandradasa said that in April 2011 when the pass mark was reduced, out of some 500 students who sat for the ERPM only 20% had passed. “Whatever the pass mark may be they will see to it that the number of candidates who pass the exam is curtailed,” Chandradasa said.

The pass mark was amended after 54 candidates who had failed the ERPM from 1999 had filed a fundamental rights case demanding that the pass mark be reduced to 40% among other demands with regard to the exam.