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Monday, July 1, 2013

State fails to meet MCI-mandated teacher-student ratio for postgraduation courses

State fails to meet MCI-mandated teacher-student ratio for postgraduation courses

Despite there being an acute shortage of doctors with specialisations, 47 postgraduate degree and diploma seats in the state will remain vacant this year because there aren’t enough teachers to tutor them. 

This year, the Medical Council of India (MCI) has sanctioned 1,442 postgraduate (1,143 degree and 299 diploma) seats for Maharashtra, including seats in medical colleges run by the state, civic body or the Centre. Of these, only 1,395 (1,115 degree and 280 diploma) seats will be filled. 

dna has learned that of the 47 seats that will go vacant this year, 45 are in state-run medical colleges. This is because the Directorate of Medical Education and Research — which conducts PG admissions — has not included these seats in the admission process. 

On the other hand, all 56 seats will be filled in the four Centre-run institutes — Tata Memorial Hospital, ESIC Hospital (Andheri), ESIS Hospital (Parel) and AIIPMER Hospital (Haji Ali). Even at the three medical colleges run by the civic body — Sion hospital, Nair hospital and KEM hospital — 436 PG degree seats (two less than sanctioned) and all 105 diploma seats will be filled. This means that patients going to hospitals run by the state will continue to suffer. 

“The shortage of seats in government institutes will help private colleges to flourish, but this hampers the prospects of a deserving candidate coming from a humble background,” said a PG aspirant.

According to the rules put down by the MCI, there should be one teacher to every postgraduate or diploma student. As of now, there are approximately 1,000 medical teachers in the state. A professor at Grant Medical College said, “We have 16 PG seats in the medicine department but only 12 candidates can be admitted, unless we find four more teachers.”

However, Dr Pravin Shingare, the head of DMER, downplayed the issue. “We have enough teachers in our colleges. A year ago, we filled 351 teaching posts. There could be only three to four seats that will go vacant because of a shortage of teachers.”

Admission into postgraduate courses has currently been stalled as per an interim order passed by the Bombay high court.

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