“Most of the teachers simply condense the whole chapter into a few PowerPoint slides and read them out in the class. The explanations are wrong sometimes. They can use either Tamil or English to teach. But they mix both the languages and it does not make sense to us,” reads a letter written to authorities by an undergraduate medical student in Tamil Nadu.
This letter, doing rounds on social media, has caught the attention of several medical associations. In the letter, the student who is an MBBS student in one of the 11 new medical colleges in Tamil Nadu, listed a number of academic issues like ineffective teaching methods, and indifferent attitude of the faculty members, affecting the student in medical colleges.
The letter was originally posted on social media platform X (previously Twitter) by user @dramudhan on Monday night, March 18. The tweet has garnered over 800 views on social media.
The viral letter has been addressed to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, MK Stalin, the Health and Family Welfare Department, the Directorate of Medical Education and Research and Dr MGR Medical University in Tamil Nadu.
The students added that during most lectures, the faculty members give a “namesake short speech” and “ineffective” internal assignment, instead of ensuring that the students are understanding the content.
“We are constantly threatened with being marked absent for any and everything. There is no transparency in attendance marking. For instance, if we are late by 5 minutes for a continuous 4-hour session we are marked absent for all 4 hours although we are present. There is no clear demarcation between Theory and Practical attendance,” the letter further read.
The student further added that during practical sessions for Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry subjects, “outdated” practical methods are being taught to the students and students are being made to sit idly for over three hours during the practical sessions.
Reacting to the viral letter, Dr Shashank Kambali, President of the MSc Medicine Association, said that a major reason behind these gaps in medical education is due to faculty shortage in medical colleges.
“These papers mentioned in the letter, Physiology, Anatomy and so on, are taken up by MSc medicine qualified faculty members. Now after the latest notice by the National Medical Commission (NMC), barring non-MBBS candidates from teaching in medical colleges, the issue of faculty shortage is going to increase further. They're opening new medical colleges with a strength of at least 100-150 students each, but where is qualified faculty?” said Dr Kambali.
