Biometric attendance will soon be mandatory for students in medical, nursing and paramedical institutions in Bihar, officials familiar with the matter said.
The Bihar University of Health Sciences (BUHS), an affiliating university of all existing health science colleges and institutions of the state government, trust or society-run medical, nursing, and paramedical colleges of Bihar, has initiated steps to introduce biometric attendance of students, just like those for doctors, nurses and other staff, said the officials.
The BUHS has also initiated steps to set up an integrated command control centre at the university office in Patna to monitor online and through CCTV all academic activities across the 14 medical colleges under it, of which 11 are of the state government and three managed by trusts.
BUHS vice-chancellor Prof Surendra Nath Sinha, who inspected the Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College Hospital (ANMMCH), Gaya, on Saturday, held a meeting with the principal and senior faculty members there, and expressed serious concern over the standard of medical teaching and student attendance across the state government-run medical colleges in Bihar.
“We have agreed to implement the biometric attendance system for students, suggested by the VC,” said Dr Arjun Choudhary, principal of the ANMMCH.
“He has also suggested mechanisms for day-to-day online monitoring of academic activities, including attendance of students, teachers, the classes they take, what and how they teach, student outcome in examinations, etc.,” said Dr Choudhary.
Dr Sinha will visit the Bhagwan Mahavir Institute of Medical Sciences, previously known as the Vardhman Institute of Medical Sciences, a government medical college at Pawapuri in Bihar’s Nalanda district on Wednesday, in the series of inspections and discussions with principals and senior faculty members of medical colleges on improving teaching standard and student attendance.
“I have initiated the process to set up an integrated command control centre at the university office in Patna to monitor online and through CCTV all academic activities across the 14 medical colleges under the jurisdiction of the BUHS,” said Dr Sinha.
“We are going to make 80% attendance mandatory for students. Besides theory and practical classes, we will focus on clinical training of MBBS students and doctors in medical colleges, as part of improving our academic activities in institutions. We will seek reports on daily basis on attendance of students and teachers, what they teach,” added Dr Sinha.
The government of Bihar established the BUHS on July 1, 2022, with chief minister Nitish Kumar as its chancellor, to ensure proper, systematic and uniform instruction, teaching, training and research in modern and Indian systems of medicine.