Dark future awaits dental students

PATNA: The agitation and filing of a case by the students of B R Ambedkar Institute of Dental Sciences against the college management, complaining about fleecing of money from them, is symptomatic of chaotic management of dental education in Bihar.
The state has been witness to the opening of a host of dental institutes in the last one and half decade, mostly under the umbrella of minority teaching institution, but without the mandatory government clearance.The government issues clearance only after completion of complex feasibility studies, which examine the need of society and infrastructure of the college, among others, according to N P Yadav, the controller of examinations for medical education. “None of the private institutions has it,� Yadav added.
The only government dental college in Bihar, the Patna Dental College, having 40 seats, is now under the threat of derecognition from the Dental Council of India (DCI). The college, initially, had only 10 seats. In contrast, all private institutes, working on the basis of capitation fee and often accused of charging Rs 8-15 lakh, claim to have a capacity of 40 and more seats, right from the inception.
One of them, the Buddha Institute of Dental Science and Hospital, has claimed to have a capacity of 100 seats from the beginning. Its management has filed cases in various courts against the DCI directive, which asks to take only 40 students. Should the court decide against its position, the career of remaining 60 students of every Bachelor of Dental Sciences batch will be at stake. The DCI, apart from L N Mithila University which has derecognised their degree, has also stopped all the four dental colleges in Darbhanga from taking fresh admissions.
The filing of the case by 19 interns, mostly from outside Bihar, with the Danapur police on Friday, complaining that the management had asked for a sum of Rs 4.20 lakh per student before allowing them to work as intern, has exposed the actual situation facing the students.
A year of experience as an intern is necessary for them to qualify to work as dentists.