HYDERABAD: Both undergraduate post-graduation students from colleges like Osmania Medical College and Gandhi Medical College have claimed that there is an acute shortage of faculty in all the 19 broad speciality and 11 super speciality streams. According to the doctors and the students, no large-scale recruitment has been conducted by the State government post the bifurcation, leading to this shortage. The last recruitment drive was carried out in 2012.
While the Telangana Government plans to increase the number of medical seats by over 300, with new medical colleges in Siddipet, Mahbubnagar and AIIMS Bibinagar, students in existing medical colleges have alleged that the quality of education has decreased because of the shortage of faculty. “With senior faculty retiring and new faculty not being recruited, the teacher-student divide is increasing. Around 60% faculty positions are open across the State. Currently, doctors without an MD or masters are teaching quite a few classes, instead of assistant professors. Meanwhile, PG students who are supposed to take on 30% of the classes are taking way more than the designated percentage,” said Dr P S Vijayender Goud, president of the Telangana Junior Doctors’ Associations.
DME Dr Ramesh Reddy, however, has refuted the claims, saying that recruitment is happening on a contract basis and the government has been able cater to the demand of faculty with contact or ad-hoc professors. Countering this claim, Dr Vijayender says, “Such recruitment has been done only for autonomous and semi-autonomous colleges like NIMS.”