RGUHS medicos students demand postponement of MBBS exams
Karnataka: The medical students pursuing MBBS courses at Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) have protested against the university's decision of holding the MBBS exams from January and demanded that the authorities should postpone the exams.
The medicos demand is primarily based on the fact that they will not be getting sufficient practical knowledge if the final year exams are held so fast. Many of the medicos also stated that preparation with such a short span will give them anxiety issues and mental stress.
This came after RGUHS issued a circular on November 18 stating that the colleges should start from December 1 and exams are most likely to be conducted from January 19th. The students found that they are only given a short amount of time to prepare before their final examination and they can never get prepared within a short period of time. Many of the medicos have taken Twitter on storm protesting against authority's decisions.
AIDSO or All India Democratic Students Organisation (Medical Students Struggle Committee) has also submitted a memorandum to the vice-chancellor of RGUHS requesting him to postpone the examination for MBBS students which is scheduled in January 2021. In the memorandum, they stated that "the recent notification from Rajiv Gandhi University of health sciences regarding the announcement of examination for all the health students has put as medical students across Karnataka in fear and anxiety. We would like to categorically reiterate that we want to appear for the examination but the scheduled time is insufficient in the background of covid-19. The unprecedented medical exigencies with the spread of covid-19, the life losses, and the lockdown posted new and difficult challenges."
It further stated that online learning can at most be interim management but not an alternative to the regular learning process. The medical students confirmed that they have never asked for the cancellation of exam. In the memorandum, they also mentioned that AIDSO on 22nd has conducted a simple survey where 9500 medical students from Government and private medical colleges across Karnataka participated in the survey and the majority of the students in the survey have clearly expressed difficulty in attending the examination on the scheduled date. 97.4% of students told that one and half months of preparation is not sufficient and online classes and ebooks are not helpful in the preparation.
The memo further stated "Medical science in particular demands hand in medical training in correlation with theoretical learning. Future doctors have to train themselves in every way to handle medical emergencies. During covid-19 situation, medical students were deprived of the whole academic environment. Without labs, we could not get the subject and are feeling incapable of writing examinations on such short notice. In this period the online classes and ebooks have not helped us in making necessary preparation to face the examination. Let apart practically, even the theory classes have not given us the required teaching. We are afraid that we will have to face the examination with half baked knowledge. We hold that such an exercise will not produce the good and pro-people doctors that we wanted to be. We able to you to postpone the examination and ensure sufficient theory and practical classes before announcing the exam time table."
Many of the students also highlighted the issue that this is going to be extremely difficult for those students who have failed as the supplementary examinations will be going on till mid-December. One of the medicos from Raichur Institute of Medical sciences told the News Minute "I was able to attend all the classes but it was not very useful as there used to be breaks of audio and we also couldn't get our doubts cleared properly. Another problem is most students haven't taken their books home to study… although we have PDF it is not possible for too long in front of a screen." Social media platforms are flooded with medicos demanding a postponement of exams.
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