The Hindu : New Delhi News : Medical students seek respite

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 03, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Medical students seek respite

By Bindu Shajan Perappadan

Demand a day off between exam papers

NEW DELHI: Trouble is brewing in three medical colleges of the Capital with the students having joined hands to demand that they be given a day off in between examinations to "prepare for the next paper without feeling the stress to revise the vast syllabus".

Asking for respite from the chock-a-block examination schedule, the student community of Maulana Azad Medical College, Lady Hardinge Medical College and the University College of Medical Sciences have written to the Union Human Resource Development Ministry and Delhi University to grant then at least a one-day leave as per the rules that govern other graduate students in the University appearing for examinations.

Earlier this week, the student community also approached and put forth their problems to the Controller of Examinations and the Faculty of Medical Sciences asking them to urgently look into the matter.

"We are asking for respite from the examinations being held every consecutive day without a single day gap between any of the papers. This put undue pressure on the students adding to the already high stress level noticed among medical students," said Abhishek Bansal, joint-secretary of the Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) Students' Union.

The letter signed by students of the three colleges has also noted that "each year medial students are faced with serious ill effects of the high stress and this is also the period where habit forming maximum substance abuse takes place".

The students said in the letter: "We strongly feel that the schedule hits at the basic purpose of conducting examinations, which aims at testing of students knowledge, regularity, hard work and various other qualities. All these go down the drain because of the unsatisfactory system of examinations".

"What we are questioning is the unfair treatment which the medical students are being subjected to. We had requested the Delhi University in February to look into the matter and take appropriate action in the interest of the student community, but nothing has come out of the petition so far," said the MAMC Students' Union president, Shabarish Dharampal.

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