Maharashtra goes ahead with medical exams despite students opposition

90% of medical students appear for PG exams, says medical education minister Amit Deshmukh

Mumbai: Even as Maharashtra is demanding cancellation of exams for various professional courses from the Center, it is going ahead with conducting the medical examinations across the state despite facing much opposition from students. State medical education minister Amit Deshmukh announced that Maharashtra was the first state to conduct medical exams in the midst of Covid-19 pandemic by prioritising students’ security with CCTV’s at all centres. 

About 90% of the 2421 registered students turned up to give exams in 115 centers for various PG courses in Unani, Homeopathy, Dental, Ayurvedic, Physiotherapy, Nursing, Occupational Therapy and Audiology Speech Therapy, Deshmukh stated on August 25. The written exams for these courses are being held from August 17- 23, while their practicals will be held between August 24- September 24. Over 9688 students are expected to give the under-graduate examinations scheduled to be held between September 8 to October 3 across 274 centers in the state.

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Various student organisations have been strongly opposed to conducting the exams since most of these medical colleges are being used as Covid care centers, while college hostels served as quarantine centers. In Solapur, a dental college professor was found to have detected Covid positive right on the eve of the exams creating flutter among the students community there. “The dental college failed to intimate the authorities and instead tried to hide the case. We intimated the collector as per protocol and he intervened to conduct tests. Will the college or university take responsibility for the students’ health in case they get Covid? Is it fair to endanger the lives of students, who enroll for medical courses by selling land to pay fees of over Rs three lakhs?” questions Sachin Shinde from Solapur’s Prayas Magasvargiya Bahuudeshiya Samajik Sanstha.  

“The Post-Graduate (PG) medical exams students are already serving doctors doing Covid duties and they could easily be promoted. The state could allow final year exams since it allows students to go ahead with their internships and the state could benefit with an additional strength of 10,000 doctors for Covid treatment,” said Dr Nilesh Jadhav, president of the Medical Students Welfare Association.

 The Maharashtra Students Union (MASU) wrote to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) stated : “The MUHS has conducted the Postgraduate (PG) exam for its students, who are far less in number than its Undergraduate (UG) students, and yet several PG students have not been able to appear for the exam, because of the prevailing situation surrounding Covid-19.” President of MASU, Siddharth Ingle stated that the  UG students were very stressed and anxious given the MUHS’ intractable attitude towards conducting physical exams at all costs.