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Medicos irked as AKU announces exam dates amid rising Covid cases
The Aryabhatta Knowledge University (AKU), which looks after technical, medical, management and allied professional education in Bihar, has decided to conduct the second professional MBBS examination, 2019, from July 28 to August 31.
Undergraduate medicos in Bihar are up in arms over the state’s decision to conduct examinations amid the spike in Covid-19 cases.
The Aryabhatta Knowledge University (AKU), which looks after technical, medical, management and allied professional education in Bihar, has decided to conduct the second professional MBBS examination, 2019, from July 28 to August 31.
In keeping with the university decision, uploaded on its portal on June 13, principals of medical colleges in Bihar have communicated dates for filling up of examination forms to the students.
The AKU decision has not gone down well with medicos, especially when some other states like neighbouring Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh have already postponed the second professional MBBS examination “till further orders”.
“Barring MBBS and dental, the AKU has also postponed examinations and decided to promote all the students of B.Tech, B.Pharma, BBA, B.Com and BMC to the next semester,” said Kritika Singh, a second year MBBS student of the Nalanda Medical College Hospital (NMCH), stuck in Delhi at present.
The students have now written to the Medical Council of India (MCI), requesting for cancellation of second professional MBBS exams and promoting them to the next semester, based on marks obtained in the previous year. They have marked the copies to the governor-cum-chancellor of universities in Bihar, chief minister, health minister and AKU vice-chancellor.
The aggrieved students, who met Bihar health minister Mangal Pandey on Thursday argued that many of them are presently outside the state, some even residing in containment zones and travelling back for the exams amid Covid was risky.
Medicos also spoke about sanitation issues at hostels, where they have a common mess and washroom.
“Adding to our worries is that one of our seniors tested Covid positive during the supplementary exam for 2015 batch that the AKU conducted recently, forcing other examinees to go in quarantine,” said Kritika.
Pandey was unavailable for comments on Saturday.
However, AKU controller of examinations, Rajeev Ranjan, said, “We are considering the complaints received from students. The AKU examination board is likely to take a decision next week.”
“Earlier this month, when we took a decision to hold examinations, the Covid cases were not as high as they are today (Bihar reported 8,678 Covid-19 cases with 56 deaths till the filing of this report). We have referred the matter to our examination board,” he added.
Ranjan, however, clarified that the university could, at the most, defer the exams. “Any decision to cancel exams and promote students to the next semester can only be taken by the MCI,” he added.
Nine medical colleges in Bihar, including eight government institutions, come under the AKU.
A UGC committee had also recently recommended to the central government for cancelling examinations for final year students in universities and institutes of higher education across India and evaluating them based on the previous semester examinations and internal assessments.
