‘Future doctors have to step up’: MUHS to conduct offline exams despite protests by students

The Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) has stuck to its guns and said that cancellation of offline exams is not an option despite ongoing protests from students citing fear for their safety in Covid times.

The university authorities said that these students are future doctors and they are expected to step up in emergency situations. Exams for second-year medical students are set to begin on June 10.

Dr Nitin Karmalkar, acting vice-chancellor, MUHS said that he is aware of the students’ demands but it is not possible to comply. “There was a meeting about 10 days ago chaired by the minister of medical education Amit Deshmukh, director and secretary of the medical education department, myself and others. The decision taken by the ministry was to go ahead with the exams. The comparison to Class 10 and 12 exams which students are doing is unreasonable. These are medical students who will go on to be doctors, expected to handle emergency duties. Since their number is small, we can ensure strict social distancing and Covid protocol while students come to examination centres,” he said.

Medical students have been running a sustained social media campaign for some time  and have even filed a case in the Bombay High Court that is expected to come up for hearing Friday.

Meanwhile, students gave the example of Dr Rahul Pawar, a medical student at Maharashtra Institute of Medical Science and Research, Latur, who died recently after writing his final exam in April.

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“We are not scared of exams but we also have families. They can conduct the exams a month after vaccinating all of us,” said one of the students from Ambejogai.

Many students have been complaining about the strict lockdown situation in their districts making it difficult for them to reach exam centres. Rohit Salunkhe, one of the students, tweeted, “My examination centre is 65km away from where I live. Public and private transport is currently closed due to lockdown. Please tell us how to reach the examination centre.”

Sumaiya Nadeem, another medical student, tweeted that her flight from Kolkata to Pune was cancelled and she is now looking for another flight and will have to repeat her RT-PCR test, which is mandatory before boarding flights.

Karmalkar said that the students were not supposed to leave for their hometowns in the first place. “Our hostels and campus are safe places; students knew exams were approaching so they were supposed to be here. However, in any case, if students are facing difficulties due to lockdown, they can approach us. I have personally not received any application so far in this regard,” he said.