Widespread Protest Over Exit Exam Results for Medical Students in Afghanistan
A number of male candidates of the Exit exam in the field of medicine have described the results announced by the National Examinations Department as unfair and have called for the complete cancellation of the test. These candidates emphasized in interviews with media outlets that the published results are unacceptable to them and must be reviewed.
According to these graduates, the questions posed did not align with the university curriculum content and were designed outside the scope of the educational syllabus. They described the difficulty level of the exam as “very high” and claimed that necessary standards in the arrangement of questions were not observed.
Based on statistics provided by these candidates, out of 4,739 participants in the field of medicine, only 359 succeeded in obtaining a passing score. They considered this success rate worrying and stated that after seven years of studying under difficult economic and social conditions, such a result is disappointing.
Meanwhile, the National Examinations Department announced the 2025 exam results on Wednesday, 22 April. According to the department’s information, a total of 6,945 candidates from the fields of “medicine” and “dentistry” participated in the exam, with a minimum passing score set at 216.
The published statistics show that only 11.1 percent of candidates passed, while 88.9 percent failed to clear the exam.
This exam was conducted while girls and women were barred from participating. Since the Taliban administration took control of Afghanistan, education for girls and women beyond certain grades has been banned by the authority—a move that continues to face widespread domestic and international criticism and poses serious challenges to the future of the country’s education system.
