MBBS students dread a ‘break’!

Currently, medical students who fail to clear their first year have to wait six months to continue in the same year. An alternative to the ‘break’ system in medical education, proposed by the VC of Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical varsity some time ago, is again in talks now.

As per the alternative proposed by VC Mayil Vahanan Natarajan, students will be allowed to continue their studies in the subsequent year, however, to be eligible to appear for the next year’s exam, the student must retake the previous year’s examination and clear it successfully. He suggests that students who have failed the first professional examination of the MBBS degree course may be allowed to progress to the second phase of training, but be permitted to appear for Phase 2 examination, only after passing the Phase 1 tests. This would help students from getting mentally depressed.

Presently, the break system is in place only in the first and final year of MBBS. Students hope to get rid of the break in the first year, as in the final year, one has to anyways clear all papers before proceeding on to the house surgeon phase.

Advocating to scrap the break system, M.Kamaraj, of the Tamil Nadu Government Medical Students Association says that the break is very demoralising for a student, especially those in the first year who then have to continue as a separate batch and they find it difficult to integrate themselves with the crowd, reported The Hindu.

The carry-over system is already being followed in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh among other states and is expected to be implemented by the university as soon as possible. However, the dilemma is to do with the approval by MCI (Medical Council of India). Shouldn’t there be a clear stand on this with clarity from the MCI, so that a standard practice is followed by MBBS colleges across the country?