Jammu and Kashmir revises Selection Criteria for Faculty Selection in GMCs
Srinagar: Revising the selection criteria for engagement of faculty in government medical and dental colleges, the Jammu and Kashmir administration has revised the rules and specified that 75% of the marks for selection in various disciplines will be on the basis of MBBS marks only.
This new rule shall be applicable for appointing faculties such as registrars, demonstrators, and tutors in all government medical colleges and dental colleges of the UT.
Issuing the order, the JK administration has clarified that the decision in this regard has been taken after the health and medical education department received several representations seeking the adoption of different criteria in the UT for engaging faculties and their selection process.
It has further been mentioned by the UT administration that the principals of government medical and dental colleges had submitted a proposal seeking a uniform selection rule.
Consequently, the matter was thoroughly examined by a committee headed by the principal of the Government Medical College, Jammu. This panel had been set up to formulate a uniform criterion for engaging faculties on academic arrangement basis.
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As per the latest media report by Free Press Kashmir, after holding extensive consultations in this regard with the principals of all colleges across JK, now the UT administration has revised the rules and clarified that 75% of the marks for selection in various disciplines for registrars and faculties posts will be made on the basis of MBBS marks only.
However, the resident doctors across the UT are not happy with this decision. Doctors under the umbrella of Resident Doctors Association (RDA) Government Medical College Srinagar and Associated Hospitals and RDA of Government Medical College Jammy and Associated Hospitals have opposed this move.
Commenting on the matter, the RDA of GMC Srinagar has mentioned that the concerned order has been issued without considering its effect on doctors who have pursued their courses from national medical colleges across the country.
“The order upon even superficial inspection is very unjust and discriminatory towards the doctors who have made it to the national medical colleges of the different states of India by qualifying the highest level of competitive state and national examinations including erstwhile JKCET or existing NEET UG,” it stated.
Referring to the gross disparity in paper evaluation system between Indian medical colleges and foreign medical colleges, the association pointed out how most of the foreign medical colleges have set different curoffs for passing their students in contrast to the existing rules in national medical colleges.
So subjecting marks percentages from different evaluation systems to compete under a single umbrella will create an unjust system and unethical platform for future recruitments of registrars, mentioned the association.
Claiming that the repercussions would be alarming and genuine competitors would be sidelines even before competing, the association demanded the withdrawal of the new order. It further mentioned that in case, the order gets implemented, there needs to be an unambiguous equivalence to the scoring system to equate the marks or percentage of MBBS.
The association has endorsed a true competitive examination in the form of MCQs, to ensure that the candidates get selected on the basis of pure merit only.
Further, the association referred to the fact that there are different evaluation systems in different medical colleges across the country. Itmentioned that if different modes of examination taken to conduct the university exams (subjective, objective and practical) gets included and consideration is also given to the methods of markings, grading and evaluation systems, the MBBS marks certainly cannot be the only criteria to compare candidates for the above posts.
"...in a profession where skill outweighs marks and academics, selecting candidates on basis of MBBS marks only will be unjust," it mentioned.
It has further been stated by the association that the criterion also undermines the importance of experience, extra degrees and qualifications, research and paperwork and gives undue importance to university scores only.
“We request the JK administration and ministry of health and medical education to give more importance to skill, research, paperwork, and fieldwork rather than academics alone which in turn will be motivational for the youth and cultivate research culture in Indian universities,” the association said.
Requesting the administration to revoke the order, the RDA body further mentioned, "We are open to offering valuable input for any reforms regarding the recruitment of medical posts. More participation of medical professionals in decision-making will lead to more correct measures which in turn will be more beneficial for the society."
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