Telangana: Govt Dental college detains 39 students over attendance shortage, skipping internal exams

Hyderabad: A total of 39 out of 100 dental students studying second year at the Government Dental College (GDC), Telangana, have been denied promotion to the third year, either due to non-maintenance of the minimum required attendance or for not attending internal assessment examinations.

Out of the 39, 16 students were detained for not appearing for mandatory internal assessment due to which they were deemed ineligible to write all the papers in the final examination. Now, they need to clear all the exams and backlogs within six months to get promoted to the third year.

Upset about the decision, members from the All India Dental Students Association (AIDSA) wrote to the authorities of Government Dental College (GDC), Telangana, to allow the 16 BDS students to attend third-year classes, while simultaneously clearing the supplementary exams within six months.

The national president of AIDSA Dr Md Manzur has written to the dean of the GDC Telangana, requesting her to allow the students to attend third-year classes, which has already commenced last month. However, GDC authorities have not relented.

AIDSA writes to GDC authorities

In the letter addressed to the dean of GDC, Dr Manzur wrote, “It has come to our notice that despite successfully completing their BDS second-year final examinations in January, some students are currently facing restrictions from progressing to the third year due to attendance shortage and internal assessment issues pertaining to one subject. Understanding the importance of attendance and meeting internal assessment criteria, we request your consideration in permitting these students to move forward to third-year postings. Allowing them to attend their third-year classes and postings will provide them with an opportunity to address the identified concerns during the supplement examination.”

Elaborating on the issue, Dr Manzur said, “There are 100 students in the batch. While some have been detained for not having a minimum 75 per cent attendance, there are 16 students who were not allowed to appear for one of the papers during the final examination by GDC as the students had missed their internal exams. As per norms, the college is supposed to conduct three internal exams and one pre-university exam. However, all the internal exams were not even conducted. On the pretext of not attending internal exams, they were prevented from appearing in one of their five papers during the final exam by the institute. As a result, they were detained. There is however, a provision of writing this one un-cleared subject within six months as a supplementary exam while continuing with third-year classes. The students are missing out on the third-year classes and attendance as well and will lose an academic year if not promoted.”

GDC principal stands by decision to detain 39 medicos

When asked about the issue of detaining the medicos, the principal of GDC Dr P Aruna clarified, “The students belong to the second year and are well-acquainted with the KNR university norms. They have to maintain 75 per cent attendance both in theory and practical classes and appear for the internal assessments. They are not eligible to write or complete their final examinations unless they meet these criteria. Therefore, the medicos were detained either for failure to maintain required attendance or for not appearing in internal assessment. They will not be losing one year but six months provided they fulfil all the university regulations within these six months and write the supplementary exam. The regulations include attending the required theory and practical classes, maintaining attendance and clearing internal assessment.”

The principal also added that since from third year, students directly deal with patients, the detained medicos cannot be promoted nor be allowed to attend the clinical third-year course unless they successfully complete their preclinical second-year course within six months as per KNR University norms.