Students with 6 percent attendance barred from exam: Dean, Grant Medical College

Mumbai: The oldest misdemeanors fetch the strictest punishments, especially when the misdeeds are related to medical college attendance. Dean JJ Group of Hospitals', Grant Medical College, has stood true to this old adage, by disallowing 12 first year MBBS students from sitting for the university exam. The students are falling way short of the 75 percent required attendance. Incidentally the errant students have a mere 6 percent attendance for lectures and unfortunately, happen to be wards of teachers.

Dean TP Lahane furious at the casual attitude of the students towards their studies said,"I was shocked when the professors told me that the attendance record of these students was less than 6 per cent, which means that they have hardly attended any lectures throughout the year. This is totally unacceptable."

Listing Grant Medical College as one of the top 10 medical institutes of the country, admitting 200 new students every year, Dr. Lahane admitted not many of their graduates were able to crack the prestigious All India Post-Graduate Medical Entrance Exam. "And this," he said, referring to the bunking, "shows where the problem lies."

Dr. Lahane regretted the glib attitude students displayed to issues of attendance and other privileges granted to them by the administrative authorities.

Speaking of efforts being made by him as Dean, to improve teaching standards, he mentioned the latest technologies being applied to improve teaching standards and the constant supervision of class room study that is being undertaken by authorities. "Such truancy undercuts these endeavours," he said. "Our professors are paid to teach the students. What is the point if students are not attending the lectures?" he further added.

Speaking to Mirror spoke some of the errant students, appeared to regret. "We shouldn't have bunked the lectures so rampantly," one said. Another just didn't think there would be consequences: "We knew about the attendance rule. But none of us took it seriously because we didn't think the college would actually prevent us from appearing for the exams," they said. Parents of some did try to urge the dean to reconsider his decision. However, Dr. Lahane's cup seems to be full.

The dean did soften a bit, a while later, instructing the students to improve their attendance over the next three months, so that he may consider them for a re-examination.