Assam MBBS 1st year students deprived of Vacation, have to prepare for exams during Durga Puja

Assam, comprising of 8 State Medical Colleges, presents a lenghty and strenous curriculum before its students. The 1st year MBBS students were recently presented with the entire year’s routine, which clearly lacks a single phase of vacation, which all the other UG courses (including the BDS courses for dental sciences) offer. Moreover, to make things worse, a tightly packed week of Internal assesment examinations is scheduled during the Durga Puja week, with only 4 days of Hoilday in between.

On the surface, this might not seem as a problem to the Government, but from a deeper perspective, which the Government and higher bodies of the state lack, this strict curriculum offers nothing but a bulk of mental health issues to the students. Many students, who left their homes, especially those from the All India Quota (i.e . students coming from other far off states), are sure to feel depressed when they cannot visit their home to spend at least the festivals with their families. Taking leaves is not an option as the National Medical Commission states the necessity of 80% attendance in classes to be eligible to sit in the final exams. Spending their days in the un-renovated and stolid hostels, the students face anxiety and depression, Struggling through one of the toughest UG courses.

The most shocking relevation is that all the AIIMS and some other Colleges, under the Central Board as well as certain State boards, have a well defined Vacation for the students studying the same course.

The students are afraid to call for protests or even tweet, for they might be targeted by the Government, and not allowed to pass through the course, falling prey to conspiracies.

An explanation for such a schedule from the Government might be that due to the most used one, ‘COVID delayed everything’. To be precise, the NEET exam was held on 12th September 2021, when the nation had almost healed from COVID. And the entire counselling and seat allotment procedure began in the month of January, with a lot of delay and anticipation from the students.