Following postponement of medical, dental and health science undergraduate (UG) examinations, the All India Medical Students' Association (AIMSA) has demanded the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) to conduct exams via online mode to avoid risks.
On Wednesday, Maharashtra state minister of medical education Amit Deshmukh announced these exams will be conducted from June 10 to June 30, 2021. The exams were scheduled to begin from June 2. Following which, MUHS, Nashik which governs all medical and dental colleges of Maharashtra, released a circular regarding the postponement.
Medical students have criticised the decision to postpone exams. Omkar Reddy, a second year MBBS student said, "How is the Covid-19 pandemic situation going to improve in eight days from June 2 to June 10? We should not be compelled to appear for offline exams amidst such a situation."
Nilekha Sawant, a third-year medical student said, "Postponing the exams by eight days is a mindless move of the state government to show that they superficially care about the safety of medical students. If the government really cares, they should conduct medical exams via online mode just like exams of other UG and PG courses."
AIMSA has requested the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Deshmukh to take a decision regarding conduct of exams via online mode. AIMSA stated in its tweet, "AIMSA requests that medical student examinations be taken online or students are promoted in view of the coronavirus pandemic."
The second and third-year MBBS programme exams, which are generally conducted in December-January, were postponed three times this year because of surge in Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra. The exams were initially postponed from January to February, and then to April. Due to the second wave of Covid-19, the exams were once again postponed to first week of June by the state government. Now, from June 2, the exams have been deferred to June 10.
