Rajasthan Medical Colleges Facing Severe Faculty Shortage, Students Studying from YouTube: Report

Jodhpur: The medical colleges in Rajasthan are facing severe faculty shortages and therefore the students are pursuing their education without proper guidance from the teaching faculties, Dainik Bhaskar has reported. 

As per the Daily, since the medical colleges in the State do not have an adequate number of faculties, the students are studying from YouTube videos or websites. Even though there are labs in the medical colleges, the students are unable to undergo practical training as the labs do not have proper equipment. 

Fulfilling the promises of the election manifesto, even though the State opened new medical colleges in 20 medical colleges in the last four years, reportedly, these newly set up institutes lack adequate infrastructure, faculty strength, or required machines.

According to the Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) Curriculum by NMC, for every 100 seats, a total number of 150 faculties are required. Despite this, the medical college in Karauli has 16, the college in Hanumangarh has 16, Bundi has 32 and Alwar has 36 faculties. 

Also Read: Rajasthan MBBS doctors issue protest ultimatum to state over medical officer exam dates

Dainik Bhaskar has reported that despite being aware of the reality of the infrastructure at these medical colleges, the Apex Medical Education Regulatory Body i.e. NMC is granting permission to these institutes. Amid this scenario, the State is planning to open 5 new medical colleges. 

As per the Daily, at Dholpur Medical College, which opened in 2022-2023, second-year MBBS students do not have access to labs for subjects including Microbiology, Pathology, and Biochemistry. For the subjects including Anatomy Biochemistry, and Physiology only one faculty is available. Among the 40 faculties available at the medical college, there are 19 Group 2 designated doctors, and 21 doctors are from RajMES. 

In the case of the medical college in Karauli, there is no teacher for the second batch of medical students. Lab equipment is lacking for Pathology and Biochemistry. The students here are reportedly studying from YouTube videos. There are only 16 faculties available at this medical college. However, in order to show that the college has the required number of faculties, 33 Group-2 doctors are being designated as Assistant professors.

The medical college in Dausa opened 2 years ago and it also is facing a lack of equipment and the students are being deprived of practical classes, reported Dainik Bhaskar. Even after 7 years of opening, the medical college in Bharatpur does not have the required number of faculties. In the case of faculty requirements, the college has 48% faculty shortage. Several departments only have one faculty each. The super speciality department in this medical college has 61 posts. However, 59 of these sanctioned posts are lying vacant.

Commenting on the matter, Dr. Rohan Krishnan, a Health Activist and Chief Patron to the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) told Medical Dialogues, "It is the harsh reality of the medical education system that right now permission to run medical colleges are being given out in such a way that there is no restrictions to anyone. Mainly business community is now opening medical colleges so that thinking in their mind that it is a good way to earn money. There is lack of facilities, faculties in the medical colleges. There is the problem of ghost faculties. NMC tried to link biometric ID with all the faculties but the biometric is being forged and this is known to everyone."

"NMC has also abolished the traditional way of inspection, which is very shocking. After COVID, there has been no physical inspection in the medical colleges. The whole medical education system is being run by small private players who do not care about the quality and they are concerned about earning money, as much as possible and the students having no other options, they think that thy will get their degrees and since there is a trust in the National Medical Commission, which has recognised the medical college, the students take admission and later on suffer," he added.

Referring to the faculty shortage in the medical colleges, Dr. Krishnan opined that the real picture is much more worse and questioned, "Why is NMC giving permission?"

"Accountability has to be fixed on part of NMC, whether it is corruption or ignorance. Such medical colleges, why were they given permission? Now, even if you close these medical colleges, the students will suffer who have already taken admission. Then, who is responsible for giving permission to these medical colleges? These people should be penalised," he opined.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that back in 2022, NMC had issued show-cause notices to 349 out of 654 medical colleges in the country for violations of the Minimum Standard Requirements 2020 including a deficiency in having the required faculty numbers.

Around 50 percent of the medical colleges were found violating the NMC standards. Among these 349 medical colleges, 197 institutes were government-aided while the others were private institutes.

Also Read: Faculty Shortage, Violation of MSR: 349 out of 654 medical colleges get NMC Show Cause Notice