Fifty Malaysian students studying medicine in India want to be transferred out immediately. The reason: They claim the teaching and living conditions at the Kasturba Medical College in Mangalore are "unbearable".
They also say they are being treated like children. Any student found not paying attention is asked to stand on the bench.
The students, who are Public Service Department scholarship holders, claim the facilities at the college do not meet international standards and that the PSD has been short- changed.
Another complaint of the students, who registered at the college in August, is that lecturers are conservative in their teaching approach (see graphics).
They sent a memorandum to Higher Education Minister Datuk Shafie Salleh on Oct 13 spelling out their grouses and asking that they be immediately moved to medical colleges in Britain or other countries, or be allowed to do twinning programmes in Malaysia.
Noor Hazin Mohd Zain, the father of one of the students, who visited the college recently, said today the students' meal was rice and gravy for which the PSD paid the college RM120 monthly per student.
If the students wanted meat or fish, they had to pay extra, he added.
He said the female students' hostel was initially located above a mortuary and that the doctors-in-the-making found the stench unbearable.
After complaining for two months, and with the intervention of the PSD, they were moved to air-conditioned rooms a few blocks away.
However, he claimed, the accommodation rate was increased by the college authorities. Noor Hazin claimed the classrooms were too big and students sitting at the back of the classroom could not hear the lecturers who did not use microphones. Some 300 students were in each classroom, he said.
The PSD spends between RM300,000 and RM500,000 on each student for five years. The 50 students are among Ma- laysia's top A-level students. This is the first time Malaysian students have been sent there by the PSD.
Another parent, A. Aziz Maarof, claimed chalk and blackboards were still being used in the classrooms.
"We are in an era where whiteboards are widely used even in primary and secondary schools. We have done away with chalk because it causes health problems."
The parents have sent an appeal to the PSD on behalf of their children.
Aziz said some of the parents met Shafie on Oct 4 and were waiting for action to be taken.
Meanwhile, a PSD spokesman said a team of PSD officers visited the college last month and had attended to some of the problems raised by the students, including being given better rooms.
He said PSD officers did not visit the college before sending the students there.
He said the college had promised to look into the food being provided to the students.
"We pay the students a living allowance which they can use to buy food," he said, adding that the students would not be transferred to another college.
------> well, the only issue that would cause alarm would be the standing on benches part, and also if they're really fed only rice and gravy. the benches part make it sound as if my darling sister is studying in an isolated African dessert with a 'classroom' so huge it can fit 300 ppl. of course, most modern lecture theatres do fit in that amount. and Gracie said that a lot of the local indians are vegetarians so naturally, it would make sense to charge a minimal fee for those wanting to eat poultry and fish. NATURALLY... they cant be making them all pay the same amount and get such different food... then the issue about the supposed 'mortuary' in the basement of the hostel... that's a dissection room, dear people... that would make visits to the dissection room to brush up on anatomy super convenient, and in real hospitals, dont the doctors stay in hostel which are at close proximity to REAL mortuaries? minus the chemicals to preserve the bodies too... and bodies of ppl who could have gone tragically etc... (if the issue they're arresting is ghosts la...) blackboards? gracie said most lectures are taught via power point and occasionally, they use the blackboard, which, by the way, as unhealthy as it is, even RCSI uses! and 'conservative' teaching methods? some institutions are proud to be maintaining the TRADITIONAL way of teaching... all these grievances... are they trying to say the indian students who study and pass out from there, are of sub-standard? a medical institution that has been in existence longer than any private medical institutions in malaysia, and even some international ones, isn't equipped to teach medicine in the full sense required? something tells me, these ppl just want to wormily wriggle their way to the supposedly 'better' universities of the west. actually, this message screams out at me when i read the part abt sending them to the UK or twinning. i'm really proud that my sister is fitting in well, and is gearing for the upcoming exams which seem to have slipped these ppl's minds, or maybe they're just trying to get out of it. So proud of you, gracie, that you're making full use of the opportunity to study,make the best of being there and absorb knowledge from the experience the lecturers share... i'm also happy my sister is above being so spoilt, and is the tough Gracie i know and love! will always be here for you, darling sister... anytime...
got up early this morning cause laysan borrowed my phone and i couldnt fall back to sleep. gosh, i feel sooo disorientated (or is it disoriented?)... :-) like im missing a limb, or part of my brain! but i took the chance to go to church early and receive the Sacrament of Confession. havent been at peace much the past few weeks... but am feeling so much better. hope i can stay as long as possible in this state of sanctifying grace and wear this Brown Scapular of mine... my migraine's miraculously gone, actually...
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