Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Dental education in doldrums

HYDERABAD: Dental students from Government Dental College and Hospital, Afzalgunj, were recently made to appear for their practical tests in two private dental hospitals in twin cities.

It may sound astonishing and even hard to digest, but here are some more interesting details.

The students of the Government college had to ‘pay-up’ to keep their patients from running away, so that they can be produced in front of the invigilators, during the course of practical tests.

Amazingly, this happened to three batches i.e. first, second and third year BDS students.

“Each student had to pay anywhere from Rs. 500 to Rs. 1000 to the patient and make arrangements for his food and travel expenses to Pananiya Dental College at Dilsukhnagar and Army Dental College,” says P. Srikanth, a BDS student from the College.

There are just two government dental colleges in the State, one in Hyderabad and another in Vijayawada.

“The Vijayawada dental college is almost defunct because it has only one professor on its rolls. Government dental college of Hyderabad does not have enough ancillary dental workers; it has three professors in place of nine, no assistant and associate professors. The oldest dental college does not even have a full-time principal,” an official familiar with dental medicine education points out.

A comparison of Government dental college with that of the private ones brings out a starker picture on how dental education at Government level is being ripped apart by the health officials.

In the last three to four years, 19 new private dental colleges have been permitted to operate out of which Hyderabad alone has five dental colleges. While each private dental college got permission to take 100 students per academic year, the Government Dental College of Hyderabad has a strength of 40 students.

In effect, at Government level there are just 80 BDS seats while in private sector there are over 1,900 seats to choose and pick from.

“These are some of the points due to which students feel cheated. They join Government colleges hoping for quality education and exposure.

The ground realities are something far more different. There is a severe shortage of staff at every level in Government dental colleges,” the official summed it up.

The striking students and house surgeons of Government Dental College on Wednesday upped the ante by taking up relay-hunger strike and rejecting several pleas and offers of truce by Director of Medical Education V. Murali Mohan.

Into its seventh day of strike, over 200 elective surgeries related to dental medicine had to be postponed and not a single class was conducted because of student absentia.

Barring surgeries related to oral medicine, none of the other departments of dental medicine were able to take up elective surgeries in the hospital.

On Wednesday, members of Andhra Pradesh Junior Doctor’s Association (APJUDA) and Osmania House Surgeon Association too extended their support to the striking students of the Government Dental College of Afzalgunj.

Meanwhile, Director of Medical Education V. Murali Mohan said efforts are on to make the students rejoin classes and house surgeons to their regular duties.

“We spoke to them on two occasions in the last one week and we would continue to engage them in a dialogue ,” the DME said.

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