Students of the 2019 MBBS batch who took their first-year university examinations last week have raised a hue and cry over the toughness of their human anatomy and physiology question papers. They have appealed to the Vice Chancellor of the Kerala University of Health Sciences demanding lenient evaluation and moderation.
Teachers’ support
Teachers in medical colleges too have endorsed the students’ concerns, saying that the questions were clinically oriented and of super-specialty level.
Most of the 4,000-plus MBBS students in Kerala, who took their anatomy paper one and two and physiology paper one examinations on March 15, 17, and 19 respectively, were agonised with questions of “higher, unexpected levels” after doing half of their curriculum through online mode during the COVID-19 period.
“I was in for a shock. The questions were too lengthy, ambiguous and tricky. Some of them were definitely beyond the capacity of a first-year MBBS student,” said Freesia Habeeb, university union councillor of Sree Gokulam Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram.
The online factor
Many students came out crying, cursing the COVID-19 time that denied them regular classes and laboratory experiments. They said those who set the question papers did not consider the fact that half their academic year had been on online mode.
“Most students found it difficult to manage time. The standard of questions was unfit for the new Competency Based Medical Education (CBME) curriculum as they did not check the clinical or anatomical knowledge of students,” said Ms. Freesia.
Some of the teachers, requesting anonymity, said such questions should have been avoided considering the COVID-19 special time. “The students were denied not only clinical experience but also any kind of dissection in lab during this pandemic period,” they said.
‘Super-specialty level’
A former anatomy professor from the Government Medical College, Kozhikode, said some of the questions were of super-specialty level and some were surgical anatomy questions.
The 2019 MBBS students are the first batch of the CBME curriculum in the State. The students, in their appeal to the university, said they had been deprived of practical and dissection classes. They demanded either a lenient evaluation or moderation from university.
Published - March 25, 2021 10:47 pm IST
