Diploma students of various paramedical disciplines in Government Wenlock Hospital staged a protest here on Wednesday demanding faculty for conducting theory classes.
The students, under the aegis of Students’ Federation of India, carried out the protest in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office. The students belonged to diplomas in Ophthalmic Technology, Operation Theatre Technology, Medical Lab Technology, and Medical Record Technology.
Theory classes are not being conducted for first and second year students regularly owing to the absence of permanent faculty. The hospital, this year, has not continued the faculty arrangement made with a private nursing college to teach theory classes. Hence, students have been forced to spend a lot of time in the laboratory, operation theatre and medical record room, they said.
Meanwhile, Superintendent of Government Wenlock Hospital H.R. Rajeshwaridevi said the diploma courses are for developing skills of those who have passed classes 10 and 12. The courses are practical oriented with only about 30 theory classes per year.
She said after the arrangement with the private nursing college ended, she and other doctors of the hospital are taking classes in anatomy and other medical subjects. Teachers from a government college are conducting classes in physics, chemistry and mathematics. The government was paying ₹10,000 per year for one subject teacher, she added.