KMDC students protest delay in exams

Over 700 MBBS students affected by exams being deferred for more than a year

KARACHI:

The students of Karachi Medical and Dental College (KMDC), irked by the delay in MBBS examinations by the University of Karachi's (KU) examinations department, staged a demonstration outside the Karachi Press Club on Saturday.

Denouncing the delay, they held placards emblazoned with slogans like 'Don't waste our precious time', 'We want to become doctors, not patients', 'Give answers for your incompetence' and 'Justice for KMDC'.

Running under the KU, KMDC failed to conduct examinations for the 2019 academic year, costing over 700 MBBS students an entire academic year. Consequently, KMDC students are likely to lag behind their peers in other medical colleges and universities.

"MBBS examinations at KMDC have been postponed twice over the past two and a half months since educational institutions were allowed to reopen on September 15," decried Hashir Sarfraz, a second-year MBBS student of KMDC who was participating in the demonstration. He maintained that the KU had been reluctant to conduct the examination despite the government allowing educational institutions to resume classes after the lockdown.

"Neither first-year students, nor those of second and third year, all totalling around 700, have been given the schedule for examinations," he complained.

According to Sarfraz, the exams were originally scheduled to take place in December 2019 but could not be conducted at the time.

"And they have been delayed by a year barring students from being promoted to the upper class," he said. "Consequently, KMDC students will likely be a year behind MBBS students at other colleges and universities. And if that is not troubling enough, the government has again ordered the closure of educational institutions."

Another KMDC student complained that the KU hadn't even issued their mark sheets for the last semester.

"We are only told that we passed the exams in the semester but no one has any idea about the GPA, which actually reflects our performance," he elaborated.

Earlier on Wednesday, a delegation of KMDC students met KU vice-chancellor Professor Khalid Iraqi, with the latter assuring the students that he had been working to get the permission for the exams from the department of universities and boards.

If the provincial government gives the permission, the exams will be expedited and conduct them in line with Covid-19 standard operating procedures, Prof Iraqi told the students.

Besides, the dean of medicine at KMDC has also received instructions by Prof Iraqi in this regard. After educational institutions were allowed to resume physical classes from September 15, following lockdown relaxations, medical colleges and universities across Sindh had begun conducting examinations, for which students prepared via online classes.

However, the KU's examination department was unable to make arrangements for examinations at KMDC, purportedly due to the lack of planning and strategy.

It has been reported that KU deputy examinations deputy controller Dr Zafar Hussain, who also holds the additional post of acting examinations controller of the KU, has no knowledge that after the termination of the semester system, exams are being conducted by his department instead of the KU semester cell.

When contacted to confirm this information, Dr Hussain told The Express Tribune that the semester cell had not intimated him about any such development. He also expressed ignorance when asked whether his department was to conduct exams.

Besides, he confirmed that the semester cell had issued mark sheets for over a year, however, adding that the tabulation record of the students had been obtained from the semester cell on the basis of which their admit cards were issued for subsequent exams.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2020.