Monday, January 27, 2014

    Medical education needs to be accountable to society: Dr Sharad Onta,assistant dean at IoM

    After 14 grueling days, Dr Govinda KC finally ended his hunger strike on Friday after government officials agreed to meet three of his seven demands, including autonomy for the Institute of Medicine (IoM). Dr KC went on a fast-unto-death after former IoM Dr Prakash Sayami resigned, citing undue pressure from various quarters to grant affiliation to private medical colleges, and Dr Sashi Sharma was politically appointed. In solidarity with Dr KC’s protest, the Nepal Medical Association, an umbrella body of doctors, shut down hospitals across the country. When officials continued to turn a deaf ear to their demands, doctors at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital resigned en masse, forcing the government’s hand. Manish Gautam and Pranaya SJB Rana spoke to Dr Sharad Onta, assistant dean at IoM, about the circumstances leading to Dr KC’s protest, the row over affiliations and the state of medical education in the country.
    Now that Dr Govinda KC has broken his fast, how do you see the way in which the whole incident progressed?


    The issues that Dr KC raised definitely needed to become a matter of national interest. We had long been discussing autonomy for the IoM and demanding that affiliations be granted in an organised manner. It is unfortunate that such a great price had to be paid for these issues to be addressed. Dr KC stayed on a hunger strike for so many days and the general public was deprived of access to health facilities. But it is in the past so there is no sense in regretting it now. At least the issues are now up for national debate.


    What exactly was it that led Dr Sayami to resign as dean?
    At IoM, we begin our undergraduate classes on Mangsir 1 but this time, there were elections so we had to push back the date to Mangsir 6 (November 21) but since some students might not have had time to admit themselves, we increased the admission date for affiliated colleges to Poush 10 (December 25), an additional 35 days. But what was disheartening was that even after the school year had already begun, there was great pressure on IoM to grant affiliation to more colleges and let them start teaching from this year itself. This was unacceptable. We only asked for one small thing, that the affiliation be deferred to the next school year. But even that demand was unheeded so Dr Sayami felt forced to resign. 


    Why did the IoM refuse to grant affiliation to these colleges?
    Alongside the establishment of a medical college, we need to have certain rules and regulations, the college’s disciplines and clear guidelines for the monitoring of the college’s quality and capacity. Our universities—TU, and Kathmandu University—only have enough capacity to conduct academics. We cannot bear the additional load of monitoring the academics of other colleges. And this is not a problem that suddenly arose; it has been there since the very beginning. If certain frameworks and regulations for granting affiliations had been instituted ever since the first medical college was established, this problem wouldn’t have exploded like it did now.


    But isn’t it an excuse to say that you don’t have the capacity? Can’t capacity be built by increasing the number of faculty members or contracting out to retired professors and doctors?

    Yes, that is exactly what we have been trying to do. It would certainly have been better if the number of faculty members had been increased proportionally with the number of new medical colleges. But that did not happen. At minimum, we should be monitoring them once every three months. Right now, IoM is running around 54 programmes and private colleges are running around 25 other programmes. But we do not have the human resource required to evaluate these programmes and see how they are being run. So the bottom line is that need at least an additional 150-200 faculty members.


    Why is there only talk of granting affiliation to private colleges? Can’t the government establish its own public colleges?

    This is related to the political economy. If Nepal has fully embraced a liberal, market economy, the state will not start letting the market handle public institutions. But the state should continue to support the social sector, like schools and hospitals. Nepal, however, doesn’t have the financial capacity to run all medical colleges. It needs the support of the private sector. Even if the state replaced one or two private colleges with public ones, that would provide great relief to many ordinary students. It would be better if the private sector had to compete with the public but right now, the private sector has turned out to be far more powerful than the public.


    Given the fact that every year, scores of Nepali students leave the country to study medicine abroad in China, Pakistan and Bangladesh because there aren’t enough seats in Nepali colleges, won’t the number of medical colleges have to be increased?

    That our students are leaving the country to study medicine abroad should not be the only reason for us to open new medical colleges. Even if we open 50 new colleges, there still won’t be any assurance that students won’t leave the country. There must be more principled reasons than this. Medical education creates capable human resources and aids in the country’s overall development. It also provides a critical service to the people. So there must be some principles that cannot be comprised—the quality of the education provided, that medical colleges operate along the principles of social justice and that colleges be socially accountable. The quality of education also depends on the capability of those monitoring these colleges. Can a person living in the Far West get easy access to medical education? Geographical distribution needs to be kept in mind. Medical colleges also have to be accountable to society.

    So medical education is not just about creating technically skilled professional but also about being accountable to society. 


    Speaking of social accountability, was it ethical for doctors to shut down medical services across the country in support of Dr KC’s protest?

    This is not an easy question and I don’t have an easy answer. Like I said earlier, this issue should not have come at such cost. We had been raising these issues for the last year or so and they were never addressed. I wish that we didn’t have to do what we did so I don’t have any space to say that this was an ethical move. But was it necessary? That is a hypothetical question. As long as we raised our voices, we were never heard. It was only after Dr KC started his fast and we shut down services that our demands were addressed. So in retrospect, it looks necessary. But the nation paid a great price and I don’t have the moral strength to attempt to provide a rationale or justification.


    This is not the first time Dr KC went on a hunger strike for the same reason. What guarantee is there that he won’t have to do this again?
    There is no guarantee. To prevent this kind of thing from happening again, we need to be more alert and active. But it is not just us doctors and office bearers who should be aware, we need a more diverse stakeholder body to be alert. This time around, civil society supported us and the media supported us. So we all need to be vigilant and act in a timely manner so that this doesn’t happen again.


    On a final note, what is the state of medical education like in the country?

    I think there are very few countries in the world that have increased the number of medical colleges in such a short time. The first college was established in 1979 and the second in the mid-90s. But since then, 16-17 new medical colleges have been established. These colleges have made their economic contributions but the quality leaves a lot to be desired. Second, the cost of medical education has also increased exponentially. I think it is cheaper for students to leave the country and study abroad than to study medicine here. Furthermore, there is a severe lack of monitoring and accountability. For example, we have a programme called the district health programme where MBBS students in their final year are required to go into the field and work there for nine weeks. This is worth 100 marks—the IoM awards 50 and the college awards 50. Till date, no private college has sent its students on this programme. But when these colleges award their students internal marks, the numbers are irrational. We know what they are doing but we can only sit back and watch because we don’t have the monitoring capacity.

    source: the kathmandu post,27 jan 2014

    Monday, January 20, 2014

    Vacancy Announcement from MercyCorps

    MercyCorps Vacancy Announcement:

    Mercy Corps is an international, non-governmental humanitarian relief and development agency that exists to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people to build secure, productive and just communities. Mercy Corps was established in 1979, and has headquarters in the USA and UK. Since 1979, Mercy Corps has worked in over 100 countries. Mercy Corps currently works in 41 countries around the world and improving the lives of 19 million people. The agency focuses on countries in transition, where countries are in the midst of - or recovering from - conflict, economic collapse, or disaster; Mercy Corps sees these crisis situations as moments of opportunity to go beyond traditional boundaries of relief and catalyze lasting change. Globally, Mercy Corps implements programs in a range of sectors, including: agriculture & food security; market development; emergency response; disaster risk reduction; climate change; health; conflict management; youth engagement; and, community mobilization/ governance.

    Mercy Corps Nepal works in Nepal to protect strengthen and expand resilience strategies and opportunities among the poor and disadvantaged through economic, financial and risk management programs. Mercy Corps began its operation in Nepal in 2005, with projects focusing on the sectors of economic and food security; climate, natural resource and disaster risk management; youth engagement; with the inclusion of women and disadvantaged groups as important cross-cutting themes throughout each intervention area.

    Career in Banking at Gaurishankar Development Bank

    Career in Banking at Gaurishankar Development Bank

    HISSAN Grade 12 and 11 Pre-Board Examination 2070 Schedule/Routine

    HISSAN Pre-Board Examination of Grade XII and XI Routine has been published on (2070-10-6). Last date of exam form submission 2070-10-29.

    Sunday, January 19, 2014

    Vacancy Announcement : Save the Children

    Save the Children is an international non-profit organization working in Nepal and Bhutan to create positive and lasting change for Children. It advocates for the rights of children and expresses zero tolerance to any kind of child abuse. Save the Children expects that anyone associated with it abides by its child safeguarding policy. Save the Children invites applications for the following positions in Suaahara, a five year USAID funded program, to improve the nutritional status of women and children under-two years of age. All the position are fixed grant term position as per the requirement of the project period i.e. from September 2011 - August 2016.

    Tuesday, January 14, 2014

    Australian Education Exhibition at Hotel Del' Annapurna, Kathmandu

    Australian Education Exhibition at Hotel Del' Annapurna, Kathmandu

    Banking Career Oppotunities at Narayani National Finance Limited


    Vacancy annoucement : Australian Aid, Australian Government

    Position                 :  Program Manager (Health)
                                   : Program Manager (Livelihoods)
     
    Description of the organisation:
    The Australian Aid is managed and delivered by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on behalf of the Australian Government. The Government of Australia's aid program works with the Government of Nepal to expand economic oppurtunities for the poor and address the underlying social conditions that impact on participation and productivity. Australia began providing aid assistance to Nepal in the 1960s. Australia provided $33.5 million in 2012-2013, focusing on creating jobs and strengthening health, education and governance.

    Saturday, January 11, 2014

    FarWestern University School of Engineering announces admissions open BE Civil Engineering

    FarWestern University, Institute of Science and Technology, School of Engineering Kanchanpur announces  admission open for BE Civil Engineering for the academic year 2070/2071 BS.

    Patan Academy of Health Sciences publishes the results of MBBS entrance examination

    School of Medicine-Patan Academy of Health Sciences (PAHS) announces the final result of the admission OSCE for the entrance examination conducted on 5,6,7 and 8 Jan 2014 (21, 22, 23and 24 Poush 2070)

    Please clink the link below for the result:
    PAHS MBBS written entrance result – 2013


    You can find the result published also in the national dailies (‘Kantipur’ and ‘Gorkhapatra’ dated 27 Poush 2070/ 11 January 2014, Saturday).

    Yala Peak College of Business Management announces admission for MBA affiliated to Lincoln University

    Yala Peak College of Business Management announces admission for MBA affiliated to Lincoln University

    Vacancy Announcement from Plan Nepal

     Vacancy Announcement from Plan Nepal

    Friday, January 10, 2014

    Career Opportunity at Laxmi Bank for Branch Managers and Officer

    Career Opportunity at Laxmi Bank for Branch Managers and Officer

    Grade XI HSEB supplementary exams in March 2070

    The Office of the Controller of Examinations under the Higher Secondary Education Board today published the results of Grade XI. The exams were held in May 2013.

    About 40 per cent of the students have passed the exams under the regular category and about 33 per cent in the exempted category, according to the HSEB sources.

    Altogether 1,04,969 regular examinees (out of 2,63,3230 ) and 50,908 exempted examinees (out of 1,54,608) succeeded in the exams.

    The HSEB will hold the supplementary exams in the second week of March for the students who failed in a subject.

    Ways to get your HSEB results 2070
    HSEB Grade 11 Results 20170

    HSEB publishes grade XI results 2070

    The Office of the Controller of Examinations under the Higher Secondary Education Board today published the results of Grade XI.According to sources, 40 percent of the total 435,018 examinees have passed the exams.

    More Details on link below:
    HSEB publishes grade XI results 2070

    Thursday, January 2, 2014

    Tribhuvan University publishes examination schedule for Masters level 2nd year 2069 BS (MBA,MBS,MPA,Law,Humanities,Education)

    Tribhuvan University,office of the controller of examination, Balkhu has published the examination schedule of Masters level second year 2069 which will be held from 22 Magh,2070 B.S.The exam time will be from 12 to 4:00 pm.

    Exam schedule in above picture.

    New Loadshedding Schedule (5 Jan 2014/ 21 Poush 2070 BS): 80 hrs a week from Sunday

    The government’s efforts to limit load-shedding to 12 hours a day have gone in vain, with the Nepal Electricity Authority increasing power outage to 80 hours a week from the existing 63 hours effective from Sunday.

    As per the new schedule, there will be power outage for 12 hours a day for three days and 11 hours a day for the remaining four days in a week.

    Premier International College announces admission open for BASW,BBS,MBS(TU) and CA(ICAN)

    Premier International College announces admission open for BASW,BBS,MBS(TU) and CA(ICAN)

    Vacancy notice from Bank of Kathmandu Ltd.



    Bank of Kathmandu Ltd. is seeking highly motivated competent,smart and energetic candidates for the following position:

    Position:Junior Assistant

    WWF Nepal Vacancy announcement

    WWF Nepal Vacancy announcement




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