An acute shortage of teachers in the country’s government medical colleges has left academic activities in disarray. It has become very difficult for the college administrations to properly conduct academic activities.
There are 108 medical colleges in the country. Of them, 38 are public while 70 are private medical colleges. Half of all medical colleges are in Dhaka division.
At present, there are only 4150 teaching staff at the government medical colleges against the demand for 7247 teachers. So, 3097 posts have remained vacant for years, according to the media reports.
An acute shortage of teachers has been hampering academic and administrative activities at medical colleges for a long time. Due to the crisis, theoretical and practical classes, tutorials and exams are not being taken on time. We think that the quality of medical education in Bangladesh is not up to the mark. If we fail to produce good physicians, it will not be possible to provide quality health care no matter how good the infrastructure is.
We feel the system of recruitment and promotion of teachers should be restructured. There is a shortage of teachers and other manpower while the teachers are not connected with modern curricula, according to experts.
There are only 4150 teaching
staff at the government medical
colleges against the demand
for 7247 teachers
Also, there is a lack of modern labs. We are basically producing less skilled doctors as they are not getting quality practical education.
The government should produce enough teachers as per the required demand. Students at most of the new government and private medical colleges do not get patients and therefore they are lacking the practical education. According to some of the students of the medical colleges, the basic subjects are being taught in the first two years of the session and the college authorities have been arranging teachers from other private medical colleges as guest lecturers to avoid any session jam.
But this is how the students are compromising the quality of education. In fact, they are facing difficulties in completing courses.
The medical college authorities could not increase the number of teaching staff though requisition letters were sent to the authorities concerned several times. Even, the post granted by the University Grants Commission (UGC) still remain vacant.
The government must recruit around 3097 teachers in the existing vacant posts of public medical colleges aiming to make public health services smooth and people-oriented.