Taking a serious note of absenteeism among dental college professors, the Dental Council has decided to introduce biometric attendance system for the teachers by the end of February. This could well be a trendsetter for medical colleges which also face the problem of teachers not spending enough time in colleges.
“We found that some professors are making flying visits to their college; some others are on the rolls of four colleges. Some are so busy with private practice that they don’t even visit the college. With a number of dental colleges mushrooming all over the country, it has become necessary for us to monitor the quality of education,” said DCI president Dr Anil Kohli. The council had received complaints that due to shortage of adequate teaching staff, dental colleges were making compromises on the mandatory conditions including number of staff and teaching hours.
The database from the biometric attendance will help the authorities verify attendance apart from documentary proof. “So far the council had not taken action against erring doctors for want of proof. These machines will provide documentary evidence. They will be installed by us and maintained by the college,” he said. At the diamond jubilee celebrations of the council inaugurated in the city on Saturday by deputy chief minister M K Stalin, Kohli said that the council along with the planning commission, WHO and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
will undertake a massive study to assess the dental healthcare situation in the country including statistics on number of private and government dental colleges, clinics, doctors and students. “We will have the results by December 2010. We will make necessary policy decisions based on the results,” he said. The commission will make it mandatory for all dentists to attend at least 20 hours of continuous dental education programme.
Deputy chief minister M K Stalin said the state government was making the necessary moves to ensure oral hygiene and care in rural areas by allotting funds to set up dental wards in taluk hospitals and primary health centres. At least 80% of kids and 60% of adults have some dental issues. Besides these, at least 30% of cancers are oral cancers. Though the WHO has recommended that there must be one dentist for every 2,000 people, we only have one for every 12,000 in urban and one for every 30,000 in rural areas. “We must ensure that everyone has access to good dental hygiene,” Stalin said.
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