Dental Council of India to enforce biometric attendance in all dental coleges

Bangalore: The Dental Council of India has decided to ensure PG student attendance in colleges and classrooms by monitoring attendance centrally through Biometric System installation at all dental colleges. The DCI has also decided to have inspections conducted of Aadhaar cards and address proofs submitted by students. The new move will make it difficult for students to be absconding from classrooms.

The medical fraternity seems to be alerting itself to student absenteeism, the recent example being CCTV installations at medical college campuses.

The call for bio metric screening comes in the face of increasing absence of PG students from college classrooms, as compared to undergraduate dental entrants. It has been found that PG students while absconding from classrooms have been working at clinics.

Welcoming the introduction of Bio metric attendance, Vice-chancellor, Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS), Dr KS Ravindranath said, "The new attendance system will be monitored by the central apex body. This is by both the Medical Council of India and Dental Council of India and is applicable to all medical colleges. Earlier, these bio metrics were locally monitored but now they will be connected to these central apex bodies. This is an excellent move."

RV Dental College's former Principal, Dr KS Nagesh said the move was indeed a good one and genuine students had nothing to worry about. "It is the right move. Certain amount of policing is required as this profession is about life and death. This is not a matter of worry for genuine students and is indeed a good move to improve the working of the colleges," he reiterated.

Students speaking to the Mirror, about the introduction of the bio metric attendance system, found the inspection of Aadhaar card and address proof, irrelevant. They felt that there were other areas that called for verification.

"There are patient quotas that colleges need to fill – say 1,000 patients. When this happens, colleges do anything to meet the target. Instead of verifying students' credentials, the inspectors must verify if patients are genuine because they often bring patients from slum areas, especially during inspections," said a dental student.

"The bio metrics is a great move. The PG students are given a stipend and are supposed to work. But what happens is that they go out in the name of camps and don't come back. If bio metrics attendance is introduced, at least there won't be proxy attendances," she said.

Students being critical further added that the DCI needed to exercise more control over the administration, rather than students. The RGUHS Vice-chancellor, seemed to second the students by not seeming too convinced about the introduction of Aadhaar verification of address proof. Dr KS Ravindranath said: "Though it may not be of great help, they are probably doing this for transparency."

"In every hospital, the patient load must be good. Colleges must establish themselves in such a way through camps, subsidized rates and amenities. Some colleges that do not have good in-patient and out-patient count turn to such practices [get fake patients] and it is definitely not good. Unless a variety of patients visit hospitals and young students are given practical training, we cannot expect them to learn thoroughly," he further stated.