The National Medical Commission (NMC) has now granted authorities in Manipur the permission to allow displaced medical students in the hill district of Churachandpur to appear for classes and examinations in hybrid or online mode at the Churachandpur Medical College (CMC).
This comes after sustained protests by Kuki-Zomi medical students who were displaced from their Imphal colleges in the ethnic conflict. The displaced students of the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal, the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal, and the SHIJA Medical College have maintained that their counterparts in Imphal have been able to continue classes and appear for examinations, while they have been deprived of the same.
In a letter to the Health and Family Welfare Department of the Manipur government on Wednesday (November 29), the Under-Graduate Medical Education Board said any deficiency in attendance or internal assessment should also be allowed to be completed at the CMC for displaced students.
The board said, “The State authority may also make an arrangement for utilisation of displaced faculties at the Churachandpur Medical College.” It directed the State authority to “ensure the completion of clerkship/practical at various district hospitals for these displaced students”.
External examiners
As for the examinations, the board suggested that external examiners from outside the State should be arranged by the university or the concerned State authority for conducting the physical examinations at the CMC. It added that internal examiners can be allowed to conduct online assessments.
The NMC noted that these permissions had been granted temporarily for at least a period of one year “after taking into account the extraordinary situation in Manipur” and that they should not be taken as a precedent. It cautioned that these permissions do not translate into a “transfer” or “migration” and merely allow the displaced students to continue their courses through the campus at the CMC.
