Students pursuing dental courses in the state will have to undergo a mandatory one-year internship from this year before getting their Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) degree. The internship will also include a three-month compulsory rural posting. This decision of the Dental Council of India (DCI) has been communicated to the state government. The four-year BDS course will have an additional one-year internship. Though the new rule comes into effect from this academic year (2011-12), it will be applicable for batches admitted in the 2008-09 session. But students of an earlier batch, admitted in 2007-08 and now in their fifth and final year, want the internship year to apply to them as well. On Monday, they took out a rally to Indira Park to press their demand.
According to officials of the NTR University of Health Sciences, which governs the medical and dental colleges in the state, the Union health minister, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, has recently approved the re-introduction of a one-year rotational, compulsory and paid internship in the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) course. Internship for BDS courses was introduced in 1992 but abolished in 2007, when the BDS degree course was made a five-year ‘complete classroom course’, without any hands-on training with patients. There were allegations that the strong private dental colleges lobby had pressurised the government to drop the internship at that time.
However, it has been found that students who completed the BDS course since 2007 lack practical knowledge because of the abolition of the internship. There are about 1,800 BDS seats in the state in 21 dental colleges.
Source : DC