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| Caught between the two: Assam Governor Lt Gen. (retd) Ajai Singh?s diktat to Gauhati University to promote 14 unsuccessful MBBS aspirants by awarding them grace marks has raised questions regarding the autonomy of professional academic institutions |
Assam governor Lt Gen. (retd) Ajai Singh?s latest directive to Gauhati University to promote 14 unsuccessful MBBS aspirants by awarding them grace marks in one subject that they had failed to clear, reeks of gross interference in the functioning of a professional academic institution.
By virtue of his office, the governor is the chancellor of the university. It is an honorary position and, therefore, it cannot be misused for personal whims. Assam has seen dozens of governors come and go but no one has so far stepped into a domain which is academic, and that, too, only to bail out medicos, who for some reason failed to clear their exams.
Studying medicine is no cakewalk because doctors are not supposed to go wrong. It is even harder in western countries such as the US, where patients can be extremely litigious and sue a doctor for millions of dollars, irrespective of how small an error they commit.
So while doctors are human beings and can make mistakes, they are still expected to be infallible in so far as their profession is concerned. If a medical student has failed in one subject, it means she or he has not done well enough and would benefit from repeating the subject and writing the same examination six months later. In medicine, this is no big deal. And why only medicine? It should be the same for every other course of study particularly as we go higher up the academic ladder.
Medical science is one of the most intricate subjects because it directly affects human lives. If, for instance, a student flunks in any one subject it would mean that she or he has not mastered the basics and needs to do more intensive work in trying to understand the missing pieces.
An MBBS degree cannot be awarded on grace marks. How can a patient trust a doctor who could not qualify through the normal process and had to use unfair means to get through the exam?
Having said that, it is an open secret that professors of medicine are the most fastidious of human beings. They expect students to perform exceedingly well without evaluating their own capability for teaching and their communication skills. Some professors are cantankerous and extremely strict in their marking. At other times they may just decide they do not like a particular person?s face or behaviour. All these prejudices add up to poor marks. But what can students do? They are scapegoats of a warped system. Would they dare take up the matter with the professor or the university?
No, they wouldn?t dream of doing so because the system does not permit it. Professors are treated like demi-gods. They can, therefore, never make mistakes. Besides, a student who dares complain would never ever pass out of medical school. Although every university has a system of standardisation of marks whereby no single professor will have the determining vote to pass or fail a student in the final exams, the views of the examiners usually prevail, especially since they are the ones who award marks for the practical examination.
One other aspect about medical colleges in Assam, which seriously needs to be reviewed, is that of the top 10 position holders. Those who have topped the list have always been people of Assamese origin.
Sons and daughters of professors have managed to occupy place of pride in the merit list. This bias has existed for decades. Yet no one can articulate his or her heartburn against the system. The argument is that since the medical college is located in Assam, so the Assamese people have the first right to capture the first 10 positions irrespective of whether or not they secured those positions on the basis of merit.
There is almost an aura of chauvinism that if you want to study in a medical college in Assam then you had better accept the norms or get lost.
For years there has been no introspection and no effort to take the institutes to higher echelon so that they could compare with the best in the country.
The medical colleges have been preserved like fragile mementoes only for serving the selfish interests of a single community. Hence, growth is stunted.
Every now and then the Medical Council of India (MCI) berates these colleges and threatens to derecognise them because they lack basic infrastructure. This of course, never happens because of political reasons. But the MCI should have the teeth to evaluate the academic performance of these medical colleges and test the results against its own yardsticks. Those results could shock many in the medical profession.
Hence, while the stand taken by Gauhati University towards governor Ajai Singh?s gubernatorial diktat is commendable, it is time for the academic council and the executive council of the university to take stock of things. And why only Guwahati, even the Assam Medical College is no better. Familiarity, kinship ties, favouritism and parochialism have long been the foundation upon which these universities have been built and continue to function. What has aggravated the situation is the ?son of the soil? argument, which boosts community ties over merit.
This has in fact led to a rapid deterioration of educational standards in Assam.
The government has subsidised education in these colleges for almost a century. Even then it has no control over the functioning of these colleges. What kind of human resource have these colleges turned out year after year? Are they equal to the best? Can they hold a candle to the medical graduate from Pondicherry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences and other renowned medical universities?. We will not know unless we evaluate our own systems of education vis-?-vis the strides at which developments are taking place in medical science.
Governor Ajai Singh?s bullish behaviour at pushing the fortune of candidates who could not clear the exams is reprehensible because there are several students who have missed similar opportunities in the past. What happens to them? Will they too have retributive justice in case the governor?s request is honoured? Acceding to such short-sighted requests would create an unhealthy precedence and stir up a hornet?s nest. The Assam government has its plate full of undigested stuff at this moment. It could do without the Raj Bhavan controversy.
In any case, chief minister Tarun Gogoi seems to have declared war on Raj Bhavan by blaming the governor twice over for his shenanigans. Once for his liberal dose of wisdom on the Ulfa peace talks and now for taking up cudgels on behalf of unsuccessful medical students. Clearly the governor seems to enjoy the spectacle he has created of himself.
Negative publicity sometimes has a reverse effect. It gives the governor more sound bytes than he would have got if he were to carry out his constitutional duties without much ado. What is the saving grace is that the governor has retracted his gubernatorial directive and has made up with the unyielding Gauhati University bosses. Once again the army flamboyance and the habit of throwing orders around has surfaced in the retired soldier. Let us hope that this would be the last of his antics.
