Mumbai, Oct 10 Failing to fulfill minimum attendance requirements, a total of 305 MBBS students from two BMC medical colleges in Mumbai have been debarred from appearing for at least one university examination, a civic official said here on Tuesday.
he students are attached to the HinduhridaySamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Medical College, attached to Dr. R.N. Cooper Hospital, Juhu, and Lokmanya Tilak Medical College, linked to the Sion Hospital.
The move is likely to hit the students badly and many could forfeit a year, though they were given repeated warnings and their names displayed on notice boards, said the official.
Contacted by IANS, BMC’s Director, Medical Education Dr. Neelam Andrade said that the other higher authorities and herself would take a decision in the matter in a day or two, on permitting these students to write the crucial examinations or not.
As per the rules, the student must have minimum 75 per cent classroom attendance for theory and 80 per cent for practical, but a majority of the students have not met the attendance targets, many less than 50 per cent and some an abysmal 35 per cent attendance.
These students have already filled up their examination forms, but the two colleges have not given them their exam hall tickets, for the exams starting later this month.
Shocked by the move, several panicky students, including some from out of Mumbai or other states, have approached the college authorities seeking remedy, but any decision in the matter is pending.
Among the reasons cited for the lack of sufficient attendance include students preferring coaching classes, preparing for other competitive exams simultaneously or preferring self-coaching through online methods.
A senior medical course professor at the Sion College admitted that attendance has been a major issue with many students not only in the BMC medical colleges but even in other government medical colleges, though the incidence is not serious in private medical colleges.
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