He first-year MBBS students from colleges across Telangana gathered at the Osmania Medical College in the form of a protest on Friday, August 19. The students have alleged that the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS), to which the Telangana medical colleges are affiliated, has been unfair towards them.
The aspirant doctors claimed that they have received very low marks in the exam, and many of them have failed because of the tough question paper and evaluation in their first-year exams. “But when we approached our professors and subsequently our VC, to request them for a re-evaluation or giving us another chance at writing the exam, they downright refused,” said a first-year student from the state’s Gandhi Medical College, who wishes to remain anonymous.
“Most of us had performed well, and these low marks were unexpected. So, we asked for a revaluation. When they denied this, we asked the authorities to conduct the exam again, but this request was also turned down,” he added. The students state that many have failed the exam because of just one mark.
“Many are depressed. We are the COVID-19 batch, who did not attend their practical exams. On top of that, the question paper was not set according to the NMC norms,” the student adds further.
According to the students, NMC has mandated that the question paper should contain only short-answer type questions of 5 marks and a total of 10 questions, which the students need to answer in 2.5 hours. “But we got 20 long-answer type questions of 15 marks each and only 3 hours to finish the exam,” the MBBS students said.
They allege that when they approached their colleges regarding the issue, the authorities asked them to contact KNRUHS, and at KNRUHS they were asked to talk to their colleges about it. “So we decided to approach the government and met Minister Harish Rao (Health Minister of Telangana). He said he would ask the VC to consider reconducting the exam, but nothing was done. So we turned to protest.”
The protest took place at about 4.30 pm. Students from Gandhi Medical College, Osmania and Kakatiya, along with various other colleges participated in it.
The students also highlighted that in the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh the NMC guidelines were followed for setting up the question papers, and as a result, students scored well. “But we are now left behind by our peers there. We are at the risk of repeating a year, whereas they would be promoted to the second year,” the protesters lamented.
Meanwhile, Dr Karthik, a member of Telangana’s Senior Resident Doctors’ Association, said, “The university should consider the plight of the students. About 30 first-year MBBS students protested today, but the marks affect about 350 of them. Students from both private and government colleges are affected.”
“KNRUHS has never been punctual with its exam schedules. Even for PG students, the schedule is never released on time. We have to ask them again and again for it. And the authorities are not at all cooperative,” he claims. He also informs that the first-year students had approached the VC with their parents regarding the low marks, but they were turned away.
Courtesy : Edex