Medical students cry foul

NST: 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.