Bihar: 37 percent 1st-year MBBS students flunk in exam, stage protest

With the increasing ruckus, police were called to dissuade the tensions, and the protesting medicos, who alleged that the university administration is 'playing' with their future, were strictly told by the authorities to follow the rules and appear for supplementary exams.

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The results were declared on Monday, August 30, 2021 declaring mass failures. As per a recent media report by Times Now, out of a total of 1100 medical students of Aryabhatt Knowledge University, almost 447 students of the 2019 batch failed in the first MBBS Professional Examination. The students alleged that the answer sheets had not been checked properly and demanded rechecking of their answer keys. However, university administration pointed out that the last moment stress might be responsible for such disastrous result.

Around 250 students from the Nalanda Medical College Hospital (NMCH), Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH), both in Patna, Bhagalpur's Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College Hospital (JLNMCH), Gaya's Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College Hospital (ANMMCH), Muzaffarpur's Sri Krishna Medical College Hospital (SKMCH), and the Vardhaman Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS) at Pawapuri, gathered on the AKU to press for their demands, reports Hindustan Times.

"Our classes were conducted online and exams held offline. Not to speak of the quality of teaching through online mode during the pandemic, the AKU changed the pattern of exams at the eleventh hour. We had to attempt 18-20 questions this time, instead of six earlier. The number of multiple choice questions was also less this time as compared to the previous exams. Against this backdrop, the marking has been very stringent," said one of the students.

Meanwhile, a 12 member delegation of protesting medical students approached the AKU VC with their demands and sought his intervention in the matter. According to the daily, the Vice-Chancellor refused to consider their appeal and suggested that they should appear for the supplementary examinations as per the rules.

According to a daily, addressing the protest of the medicos, highly placed sources within the University have mentioned that the students were under stress. The official furthers stated that the medicos had to travel a lot from district to district to reach their respective examination centres which might have disrupted their mental peace. Considering that the course is highly competitive, it needs very high concentration on the part of the students to score well, stated the official.

The Bihar Chapter of the Medical Students Network of the Indian Medical Association has also written a letter to Bihar Governor Phagu Chauhan on Tuesday highlighting the issue. The IMA student unit pointed out that 69% students (104 of the 150) failed the examination at the Madhubani Medical College, a private medical college in Madhubani. As far as the other institutions are concerned, 13.88% medicos (25 of 180) failed at the PMCH, 28.33% (34 out of 120) at the ANMMCH, 30% (36 out of 120) at the SKMCH, 37.50% (45 out of 120) medicos at the NMCH; 38.33% (46 out of 120) at the JLNMCH, 41.66% (50 out of 120) at the Darbhanga Medical College Hospital (DMCH); 41.80% (51 out of 122) at the VIMS, and 46.66% (56 out of 120) medicos at the Government Medical College (GMC), Bettiah.

Zee News reports that Aryabhatta Knowledge University has refused to promote under any circumstances. The Controller of Examinations of the university, Rajiv Ranjan said, 'As per the rules of National Medical Commission (NMC), the maximum number of 5 has been given grace, now we cannot do anything from here onwards.'

He further added, " Mixing and scanning of answer sheets are computerized. Name and roll code of students is removed and only answer sheets containing barcode are sent to the examiner. We leave no scope of any bias, which may otherwise reflect in the examiner."

Further, while acknowledging that the students have given the exam during the difficult times of Corona, the administration made it clear that no university would like to start a wrong tradition by promoting failed students. So there is no justification for the demand of medical students.