When a student has to endure a fierce competition to enrol at medical college, the crisis of students at several private medical colleges is really a piece of surprising news.
According to a Prothom Alo report, the MBBS first-year class will begin on 5 June, but many seats remain vacant at private medical colleges. According to the Private Medical College Association, 1,200 seats will remain vacant, while, the figure, according to the health ministry, is 635.
What is more important than the debate on the number is, why private medical colleges cannot maintain education quality. Private medical college owners are mulling the cancellation of the automation system, which prepares the serial of the students and allows students to choose three colleges of their liking. Seats remain vacant at those medical colleges that the students do not choose on priority.
There is a close relationship between the reputation of an educational institution and the enrolment of students. Normally, students will choose the medical colleges that have established themselves as standard educational institutions.
Lots of allegations surfaced on admission to the medical college before the introduction of the automation system. Many private medical colleges took more money and admitted students from the bottom of the serial leaving out the students who came at top of the list. Once the automation system was introduced these irregularities stopped.
The Directorate General of Medical Education and the Medical Education and Family Welfare Division can easily learn about which students regardless of their serial number are applying for which colleges, and which private medical colleges are taking which students.
According to the officials of the Medical Education and Family Welfare Division, there are currently 5,380 seats at 37 government medical colleges, while there are 6,293 seats – 3,551 for local students and 2,742 seats for foreign students, at 67 private medical colleges and 19 per cent of seats remain vacant at private medical colleges. Admission fees are the main source of income at private medical colleges. A private medical college receives a tuition fee of 1.94 million taka per student. Several colleges even earn more than 200 million annually.
The admission process at private medical colleges opens after the admission process at government medical colleges ends. Students’ enrolment is conducted in light of the merit list with students topping the list being admitted to the reputed colleges. So, the new system should cause no problems for private medical colleges.
Entrepreneurs of private medical colleges where seats remain vacant are worried now, but why did they not take the initiative to improve the standard of the educational institutions? Medicine is such a specialised education where most things are taught hands-on, and that is not possible without the necessary infrastructure, machinery and adequate quality teachers. Many private medical colleges run without minimum infrastructural facilities and skilled human resources.
It is very unfortunate that the situation did not improve even after taking legal action and stopping enrolment at several private medical colleges. There will be no compromise with the quality of education on the pretext of seats remaining vacant at several medical colleges, and that will not be right at all.