GMC, Patiala, detains 24 over poor attendance

Tribune News Service

Patiala, February 5

Amid the ongoing pandemic, 24 MBBS students of Government Medical College (GMC) here have been denied permission to take the final exam for 1st Prof owing to shortage of attendance.

The GMC authorities detained the students from examination on Thursday, a day before the examination. Ironically, the move comes after the roll numbers had already been issued to the detained students by the Baba Farid University of Health Science (BFUHS).

Authorities should be sympathetic

In the wake of the Covid pandemic, the authorities should be more sympathetic towards students, especially with regard to shortage of attendance. — GMC student

Experts said the students would now face a backlog of six months. It was learnt that one of the subjects that the students were detained for was anatomy — taught by the GMC Principal.

One of the students said: “In the wake of the Covid pandemic, the authorities should be more sympathetic towards students, especially with regard to shortage of attendance.” Principal Dr Rajan Singla said the students were detained only after they had been given a chance to improve their attendance.

“We held extra classes for them to make up for the shortage of lectures. But they didn’t avail themselves of the opportunity. In addition, they had been given 5 per cent lectures, but still were short on lectures,” he said. To avoid a backlog, the students might get another chance after 40 days of declaration of results, given they improved their lectures and met the attendance criterion, he added.