Assessment in Competency‑Based Medical Education: Significance and the Existing Challenges

Dear Sir,Over the years, a significant gap between the education givento medical graduates, healthcare delivery, and the needsof the society has surfaced.[1] This directly points questiontoward the quality of medical education and whether theproduced medical graduates are competent enough to meetthe healthcare needs of the general population.[1] To movein the right direction, the Medical Council of India (MCI)defined an Indian Medical Graduate (IMG), who shouldhave all the desired attributes to work effectively as the firstpoint of contact of the community and be simultaneouslyglobally relevant.[1]It is quite clear that the traditional mode of curriculardelivery has no provisions to meet the vision of MCIto produce an IMG, and that has led to the origin ofcompetency‑based medical education (CBME).[1] A seriesof three crucial steps have been identified in the planningof a competency‑based curriculum, namely identificationof the specific competencies, recognizing the content andorganization of the program, and assessment and programevaluation.[2,3] In CBME, the assessment is made with apurpose to improve the quality (to move toward expertise).[2]The assessment focuses on the does level of Miller’spyramid of skill acquisition and is criterion‑referenced,wherein none of the students are compared with others, butwith the set criteria.[2,3]