Mir Farhat
Srinagar, Nov 8: The Paramedical Council, managing and regulating the paramedical training colleges in the State has failed to deliver its duties of conducting exams on time and declare results, jeopardizing careers of thousands of students.
The Council was formed in April this year after disbanding the State Medical Faculty (SMF) that would deal with the paramedical system.
The Government has called these students “a vital link in the hospital service” but the sluggish and insensitive approach of the Council toward the students’ affairs has them left worrying.
Besides other things, the Council was formed for giving approval to the courses of study and examinations.
Students who had started their 18-month course in different paramedical colleges in the State in March 2012 are yet to complete it. As pet the Council norms, their course would have finished by September 2013.
“By September 2013 we should have completed our course, but one more year has gone by but we are still in the first year,” said Adil Ahmad, a student, who had participated in his first year exam in December 2013, and is yet to finish his course.
More than 10,000 students are undergoing various nursing and paramedical training in 30 paramedical institutes including 25 private and five Government-run AMT Schools in the State.
The delay in exams has not only cost them their precious time but their future too. Some on them were anticipating jobs in different private and Government hospitals and some for further studies.
The Council is headed by Principal Government Medical Colleges Srinagar as its president for two years, with Mission Director NRHM, Principal, Nursing College, SKIMS, Principals of AMT Schools Jammu/Srinagar and Head of the concerned department as its members.
Ahmad said their precious academic time is already over as they cannot apply for further studies because admissions in outside colleges have been closed months ago.
“The management of the Council has disappointed us. When we visit them and enquire about our exams they simply ignore us,” he said.
Also the students are mired in the pattern of the syllabus they are taught.
“The syllabus for our course is not bifurcated. For the first year exam questions are asked from that part of the syllabus which is not taught in that academic year. Atleast 30 per cent of the questions are asked from the uncovered syllabus as a result students fetch poor marks,” said, Asif Malik, another student.
The students of batch 2013 who appeared in exams in August this year took to streets after the Council asked them to sit in the exams again because their answer sheets were destroyed in the floods.
When contacted to seek his comments, President of the Council Dr Rafiq Pampori told Excelsior that all was fine with the Council.
“We are doing everything on time, and we are holding exams regularly,” he said.
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