Dental students in Tamilnadu fare miserably in final exam

Updated on: Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Fewer dentists will be added to the healthcare system in Tamil Nadu this year as almost 60% of BDS students have failed to clear the final year examinations held in August. The pass percentage last year was 70%.

The failed students will now have to take re-exams in February, 2013. Of the 945 students who wrote the examination, 396 passed. The large number of students failing is attributed to changes in the exam and evaluation policies. Two years ago, students used to get as much as 49 marks as grace. In the last two years, not more than five grace marks were awarded. Some 60 dental students benefited from the grace marks this year.

Also, in 2011, a student required a combined score of 50% in theory, oral, internal, and practical exams. But now the student has to get 50% in each of the papers. In 2011, the academic board of the Tamil Nadu Dr M G R Medical University fixed the passing minimum in each component of the examination, and this came into effect from August 2011. The Dental Council of India has also told the university that it can increase the pass percentage to improve quality. "We had to do this to build better dentists. A dentist has to be equally good in practical and oral. He can't say I failed in oral or practical but scored high in theory," said university vice-chancellor Dr Mayilvahanan Natarajan. The university, he said, will not encourage revaluation this year as every paper of failed candidates was sent for second evaluation.

The final year students have to clear eight papers - pedodontics (paediatric dentistry), periodontics (treatment of gum diseases and inflammation), oral surgery, conservative dentistry, oral medicine, orthodontics (dental bones), prosthodontics and public health dentistry. Though the pass percentage in each of the eight subjects is above 69%, many students failed to clear all the eight papers.

Unlike other states, students in Tamil Nadu are admitted to colleges based on their score in Class 12. The state has rejected the nation-wide common entrance examination suggested by the Union health ministry. Senior dentists like Dr George Paul feel it is important to test the students' aptitude before they are admitted to medical or dental colleges and that can be done only through a common test. "There is no quality check of entry level students," he said.

Senior dental surgeons also attributed the high failure rate to decline in quality teachers in dental colleges. Though the state has 18 government-run medical colleges, it has only one government dental college. The remaining 18 private dental colleges are affiliated to the state medical university. While 65.8% of students passed the test in the government Madras Dental College, the pass percentages on many other colleges were below 50%.

India is facing a severe shortage of dentists. The World Statistics 2012, released by the World Health Organization (WHO), says India has less than 1 dentist (0.8) per 10,000 population. In absolute numbers, there are only 93,332 dentists. "There is an urgent need to increase the number of dental seats. But what is more important is to ensure that the quality of education improves," Dr Paul said.

Dental students in Tamilnadu fare miserably in final exam

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