Medical, Dental Course Admission
Minister sits with admission-seekers today
The health minister, AFM Ruhal Haque, will sit with representatives of medical admission-seekers, who have been rallying for about 20 days against a government decision on holding no intake test, in his office at 9:30am today to discuss the issue.
The government on August 12 decided to enrol students on MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) and BDS (Bachelor of Dental Surgery) courses based on the admission-seekers’ SSC and HSC results. The admission-seekers have since then been rallying against the decision.
The minister will discuss the issue with students at the secretariat at 9:30am, health ministry officials said on Saturday night.
The admission-seekers at a citizen rally in Dhaka University on Saturday afternoon gave the minister 24 hours to reinstate the admission test for medical and dental courses.
The students demanded a meeting with the health minister in the presence of civil society actors and media people in 24 hours to discuss the issue. The deadline expires at 12 noon today.
‘We will observe a token hunger strike at the National Press Club between 12 noon and 4:00pm tomorrow if the minister does not change the decision by noon or sit with us for a discussion by the deadline,’ Ananya Banik, an admission seekers, said on Saturday.
Columnist Syed Abul Maksud, actor Rokeya Prachi, engineer M Enamul Haque, former DU Central Students’ Union general secretary Mustak Ahmed, vocalist Arup Rahi, leaders of left organisations such as the Bangladesh Chhatra Federation, the Bangladesh Students’ Union, Samajtantrik Chhatra Front and Bangladesh Chhatra Maitri, among others, expressed their solidarity with the students’ demand.
Earlier in the afternoon, the minister at a meet-the-press at the Dhaka Reporter’s Unity said that the ministry could not change the decision on the medical and dental admission unless writ petitions on the issue pending with the High Court were withdrawn.
‘I have talked with lawyers and they said that there is no scope for changing the decision unless the writs are withdrawn. We will, otherwise, need to wait for court verdicts,’ he said.
He said that the decision might be changed after discussing the matter with all concerned.
Ruhal urged medical students to talk with him to settle the issue. ‘The students should come to discuss the matter with me,’ he said adding that the ministry might change the decision if the writ petitions were withdrawn.
The minister urged an immediate settlement of the issue as the Directorate General of Health Services needs to begin the admission process.
The DGHS director general, Khondaker Mohammed Shefyetullah, additional director general ABM Saiful Isam, director of medical education Shah Abdul Latif and the DRU president, Sakhawat Hossain Badsha, and the general secretary, Sajjad Alam Khan Topu, attended.
Sammilita Shikkharthi Jote, a platform of admission-seekers supporting the government decision, at another press conference at the Dhaka Reporter’s Unity meanwhile, said that enrolment on medical and dental courses based on secondary and higher secondary results would eliminate the coaching business and stop question paper leaks.
The admission-seekers have been holding this round of protests since August 26. Law enforcers foiled two rallies of the admission-seekers in Dhaka and Chittagong. They students held protests in August 13–14.
The admission to MBBS and BDS courses is expected to begin in the fourth week of September.
Courtesy of New Age
