Thousands of Indians studying medicine in China came home for their winter break early last year and have been stranded ever since, as Covid tightened its grip and becoming more and more worried because of Beijing’s travel restrictions. There is no clarity on when it will be lifted. .
Many students said that online classes are on, but lack of access to practical classes puts a big question mark on their education and future. I have attended online classes, but we are practically completely missing out. Richa Singh* from Delhi, a second year MBBS student at Xi’an Jiaotong University, said, “I have completed two years of my course, but I still haven’t dissected anatomy. With most Chinese applications banned in India, Singh* said that many students, including him, have been forced to set up virtual private networks (VPNs) to access their classes.
While their inability to resume physical classes for a large part of 2020 was understandable due to global travel norms, students are pressing for a deadline as to when they can return to China. As per 2019 statistics, more than 23,000 Indian students studied in various courses in Chinese universities and colleges. More than 21,000 of them enrolled for MBBS studies.
According to Shamik Mazumdar of Omkar Medicom, a consultancy for Indian students aspiring to do MBBS abroad, China is allowing international students to return gradually, but the second wave of COVID-19 in India has slowed down the process for Indian students. has slowed down. I have been in touch with the deans of various universities where Indian students are studying, and colleges saying that they want students to come back, but India’s COVID situation is not completely under control right now,” he said.
He said that since China is preparing for the Winter Olympics, it is likely that these students will be allowed to return by September-October this year. Nearly 3,000 students recently came together to form a group of Indian students in China on the instant messaging software Telegram to brainstorm how to capture the attention of the governments of India and China. A Twitter campaign has been launched with the hashtag #takeusbacktochina.
They also reached out to Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month to request the government’s intervention. We are 25,000 Indian students studying in Chinese universities who have been forced to attend online classes for the past 17 months due to travel and visa restrictions. Our medical studies require a lot of practical and collective work, but our admissions in China and our respective universities have been banned for the past year and a half and we are suffering every day, the letter said.
Ravi Varma*, a fourth year student at Nantong Medical University, said he had also sought assistance from the Indian embassy in China, but in vain. We reached the Indian Embassy in China about four-five months ago… We were told that the Chinese authorities have said that they are working on bringing the students back. But we haven’t heard anything from him yet, the 22-year-old said. Verma*, who is also part of the China International Students Union (CISU), an independent representative body of international students enrolled in universities and institutions in China, said there was no clear deadline from the Chinese authorities as to when they would Will be able to return .
Both Singh* and Verma* claimed that classes had resumed in their universities, which were allowing students from several countries, including the US and South Korea, but not India. Indian Embassy officials in Beijing said they have taken up the issue several times with the Chinese government at the level of the foreign and education ministries, explaining the plight of Indian students stranded at home and their commitment to return with a commitment to all. The petition is discussed. specified protocol. On 22 March, the embassy issued a statement saying that it was following closely with Chinese authorities, including the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, regarding the concerns of Indian students in China, particularly regarding their early return to colleges. has continued. Universities in this country”.
The students said that they are paying their course fees and in some cases even hostel fees. Karim Khan* said that he has to spend lakhs of rupees every few months.
Practicals are the main thing in MBBS. Not everything can be understood online, but the university is not understanding towards us. Every time it comes time to pay our fees, we are told that our practicals will be taken care of once we return, but I don’t think that will happen. “We have not been given any written assurances,” the 21-year-old student of Hubei University said. Internship is another problem as many doors are closed for them in Indian establishments.
The National Medical Commission (NMC) in October last year had reportedly said that online classes for MBBS would be valid only for the pandemic and would have to be supplemented by practicals when colleges reopen. Some students also claim that many state governments in India have denied internships to online degree holders. As part of our curriculum, we are expected to do an internship in a hospital or nursing home in our final year, but many state governments in India are saying they will not accept online degrees. This has now made us concerned whether we will be able to practice in India in the future or not, Verma* said. Khan* said his career would be destroyed if the NMC decides to invalidate the online MBBS degree.
NMC can at least allow us to do our practicals in hospitals and nursing homes in India. He said that our universities have allowed this, otherwise we are not getting any clinical practice despite online classes. As students worry about their future, China’s National Health Commission vice-minister Li Bin said on Thursday that Beijing “cannot relax epidemic controls” because of the current pandemic. “Some cities have recently seen local clusters due to imported cases of the delta variant, including Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Ruili,” he said.
“These waves have reminded us that we cannot relax our epidemic control measures,” Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted him as saying. Officials said China would have to allow the return of foreign students by September this year or by April next year at the start of the new academic year.
China, which has widely controlled the coronavirus after it was first reported in Wuhan in 2019, is currently vaccinating its people at a hectic pace. So far, it has delivered about 1.34 billion doses of vaccines. Officials expect China, which has a population of more than 1.4 billion, to vaccinate about 70 percent of its people to achieve herd immunity by early next year. Until then, China may continue to impose restrictions on foreign travel. (*Students’ names have been changed to protect identity).
read all Breaking News, today’s fresh news and coronavirus news Here
.