The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Failed students sent out of hostels

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 09, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Failed students sent out of hostels

Staff Reporter

The nursing students are on a dharna

NOWHERE TO GO: Failed nursing school students who lost their scholarship and were sent out of their hostels staging a protest in Bangalore on Monday. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

BANGALORE: Thrown out of their hostels, about 200 students of Diploma in General Nursing and Midwifery spent Monday evening inside the Bangalore Urban District Social Welfare Office here. The students are on a dharna, demanding the Social Welfare Officer that they be let inside the hostels.

All the students had failed their first year examination in August last year and were to appear for a re-examination in March. But since they were all sponsored candidates of the Social Welfare Department, the funds were stopped once the examination results were out. The private nursing schools that hosted them decided that they could not stay in the hostels anymore. On Monday, they were asked to clear out of the hostels.

The students told The Hindu that they were all placed in nursing schools that lacked basic infrastructure, tutors and even attachment to a hospital. They had placed their problems before the Karnataka Nursing Council (KNC), which agreed for a re-examination.

The Students Federation of India (SFI), representing the students, has demanded that the Social Welfare Department at least make arrangements to let the students stay till March. "Let the students take up the re-examination. The colleges could then retain those who clear the examination," said an SFI activist.

Hailing from different parts of the State, the students had hoped that they would be allowed to stay on. "Many of us had gone to our homes for 15 days. Today morning, they threw us out along with the luggage. Where do we go now," wondered a student. The private nursing schools had reportedly offered them a choice: They could pay Rs. 1,500 a month and stay on in the hostels.

But the students hailed from very poor families and Rs. 1,500 was a very big sum.

A Social Welfare Department official expressed his helplessness as it was the government's policy to offer scholarships only to those who meet the eligibility requirements.

Since the students had failed, the funds had stopped, he said.

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