The Chairman of Dental Council of India, Dibyendu Majumdar, on Sunday said the council will be forced to close down some dental colleges if there is no improvement in their clinical material by next year.
Inaugurating the 25th anniversary celebration of Manipal College of Dental Sciences (MCODS) Mangalore, Dr. Majumdar said good clinical material was essential for a dental student. The pre-university students look at clinical material and the research activities carried out by the dental colleges and then opt for the best college.
Dr. Majumdar said he had found that some of the colleges, especially in North India, had poor clinical material. “These institutes have been given breathing time of one year. If they do not improve their clinical material, the council will be forced to shut down such institutes… You (institutes) should not play with the future of the students.” Seats in dental colleges, which have good clinical material, get filled very quickly, he added.
Dr. Majumdar said the council had decided to generously increase Master of Dental Sciences course seats in various colleges. “We are ready to give. But the colleges have to be well equipped (to run the course). The clinical material has to be good. If it is not to the expected standard we have to cut down the seats,” he said.
Dr. Majumdar said it was important to provide good facilities and training to dental course students. These students should be adequately training in treatment of various dental ailments in rural areas. About 1.2 lakh students had benefited by the re-introduction from last year of the four-year Bachelor of Dental Sciences Course with a one-year internship. It enabled students to adopt a village or work in a Primary Health Centre or provide basic dental treatment services in rural areas in their last three months of internship, he said.
He appreciated Manipal University's efforts to improve the quality of education provided to students and improvement in the research facilities. Dean of MCODS V. Surendra Shetty spoke about the progress made by the institute since its inception in 1987. Pro-Chancellor of Manipal University H.S. Ballal, Manipal University Vice-Chancellor K. Ram Narayan, and Manipal University Registrar G.K. Prabhu participated in the function.
