Medicos cry foul as college bars 12 from writing exams

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After serving show-cause notices to students for exposing its inadequacies, the SR Medical College and Research Center (SRMCRC) in Varkala once again turned into revenge mode forbidding 12 students from attending the second year final exam, which commenced on Tuesday, citing lack of attendance.

But students said barring them from writing the exam is nothing but an act of vengeance for bringing the wrongdoings to light.

At the same time, an appeal moved by some students for cancelling the said exam will come up for hearing at the Kerala High Court on Wednesday. 

“Students who couldn’t attend the exam were part of the group that tried to meet the assessors appointed by the Medical Council of India board of governors when they visited at the college for examining the standard of faculty and clinical materials,” said a student. 

“Foreseeing such retaliation from the college authorities, students had approached the Kerala University of Health Sciences (KUHS) and offices of the Chief Minister and Health Minister. But nothing happened,” the student said.

But the college authorities said the students who were barred from appearing in the exam had low attendance. 

“This is the second year’s final year exam. As per the course specification under forensic medicine, a student should witness at least 10 postmortems and should prepare an autopsy report. But we didn’t even witness a single postmortem till date,” said a student who was barred from writing the exam.  

According to another student, though KUHS is aware of the low standard of medical education provided by SRMCRC, it has turned a blind eye to the issue.