Of timid examiners and emboldened examinees

Somewhere in the northern part of India. A university examination for BDS final year, some 17 years ago. At a dental college that then operated out of a four-storey residential building and some tin sheds. No rules existed in those days about minimum requirements of land and building, equipment, number of faculty or patient quotas.

The external examiner was an honest, upright gentleman. The owner of the college - the Chairman, as most owners of private colleges are usually referred to - was not. At the end of the examinations, the external examiner filled up the awards list, signed, sealed and submitted it to the college, to be forwarded to the university. The owner invited the external examiner to his room for a cup of tea.

Along with his tea and an elaborate side of samosas, pakodas, sandwiches and biscuits, the frail-looking partly bald examiner was served a few sheets of paper - a duplicate set of blank awards list sheets. Please sign this. 

The righteous professor was indignant. He practically threw an apoplectic fit. The beady-eyed Chairman expressionlessly heard him out till he had finished. Then he quietly pulled out an automatic from below his table, ceremoniously placed it in front of him, and softly repeated, "Please sign this."

In the last so many years, external examiners have generally made it a practice to hand over signed blank awards lists to the internal examiner. And internal examiners are far more timid and malleable than external examiners.

So the examinee knows that the marks she / he receives in the university examinations are entirely in the hands of the internal examiner(s). So how does the student directly pressurize the internal examiner, without waiting for the Chairmen to come into the picture?

Simple. Read on.

Faking record-breaking records

Academics in any dental / medical college go hand-in-hand with treatment of patients. Students are required to 'try out' their newly acquired theoretical knowledge by working on real human beings!

Some years ago, dental colleges received a new order - that there must be plenty of 'clinical material' for every department. Only then would students be able to learn dentistry properly. A noble thought, that. However, a wildly inflated number of patients was required to fulfil the daily quota - and most colleges were unable to attract that many patients in a week, leave alone a day.

पानी मिलाना, or adding some fake records to boost up the numbers, became the norm. Then it became a game for the inspectors to verify these records at random, and catch out discrepancies. How a departmental record of a patient did not match with the main register. How the amount of dental materials given out by the store did not match the amount of work done. How cash collection records for a given day did not match the number of patients or work done. How the treating dentist seemed to be absent on that particular day, yet signed the work.

Until one day. The wizards stepped in. The experts in creating foolproof, inspector-proof, undetectably fake records. So good were they in their teamwork, in creating records without loopholes on a daily basis, that their worth shot up in the eye of the managements. They loved these wizards. Who wants real patients, eh? Some institutions loved the way these experts made up for the shortfall in numbers. And then some colleges followed the bright path of faking entire records - with practically zero real patients.

One inspector from a government college once confided: I know your records are all fake, but all data and documents are there on record, so I cannot report that anything is wrong here. But we also handle a similar number of real patients, and we know that those registers don't remain so clean and shiny when they are used every day. 


“People cheat when they are afraid. When there is no cost to being wrong or confessing ignorance, there is no reason to cheat or fake comprehension.”
~ Leah Hager Cohen, I Don't Know: In Praise of Admitting Ignorance

Wisdom, honesty and expertise don't get you to the top in the world of dental education. Faking it does!

'Pass' on the threats

Any teaching institution needs one major ingredient to continue to exist - students. Paying students.

Yet, in the past few years, finding students to fill all the seats has become a challenge for any dental college. 

There are too many dental colleges across the country, and too few people aspiring to become dentists. Students and their parents from the big cities around India do not exactly queue up for admission to dental colleges. There are many more career choices than dentistry, and far more lucrative careers too. 

But those seats MUST be filled. It is a fight for existence. All's fair in war - and never mind anyone's love for the profession. Every single casual enquiry must be aggressively pursued and roped in to sign up as a student. Each institution employs agents to scour for and source students from the furthest corners of the country. But why would anyone be interested to spend a few lakhs of rupees to educate their child in dentistry and take up a career that already appears to be overcrowded? Unless, of course, there is an interesting freebie on offer?

That freebie is not a discount. It's not a new laptop. It's not even free hostel accommodation. It's just a promise.

भर्ती  करना  और पैसा देना आपका काम है। पास कराना हमारा काम है। 

Your commitment is to pay the fees we ask for, and enrol your child in our institute. Our commitment is that (s)he will pass the examinations.

The faculty is never privy to such information in advance, of course. Realization dawns when the final marksheet has its marks changed, before being sent to the University. Lately, the faculty knows. They do not try to forcefully insist upon fair assessment and results. Let the student pass as the management desires, and the faculty member gets a pat on the head, one doggie biscuit for his efforts, and a chance to stick around and draw a salary for some more time.

Of course, there are some exceptionally strong-headed, unreasonable, pretentiously righteous members of the faculty, who ignore the warning signs and covert or overt threats. They see clear reason after a short meeting with baseball-bat-and-hockey-stick-wielding persuaders, followed by a period of deep introspection along with admiration for the newly installed extra-large jewellery on their arm.

Threaten, and ye shall pass;

 Step over my broken bones into the next class.

The shrinking dental teaching job market - and falling salaries

Your services are no longer required by this institution. We found an alternative employee who accepts a significantly lower salary for working longer hours (or pretending to, which is also acceptable), and we don't care a sh!t about how well you teach or how dedicated you are to the institution.

No, notices terminating one's services with a dental college are not exactly worded that way. But behind every faculty member who is unceremoniously sacked, the thought process is the same.

Times were, when a faculty member who was willing to work full time and devote her / his energy and effort towards the betterment of the department and the dental college, was difficult to come by. And colleges cherished and held on to such people. Salaries were adequate (but certainly nowhere near corporate-head-honcho levels), and people willingly put in their 100%. It was also imperative for dental colleges to prove during inspections that their faculty members actually worked full time.

Then came another era - one where any institution can get away without needing to prove that faculty members do, indeed, work full time. Along with that came a flood of potentially qualified teachers, who were desperately seeking employment - irrespective of the salary level. They willingly lend their names to the institution and appear for inspections, to fulfil the institution's need to complete the numbers game. In return, these missing-for-the-rest-of-the year faculty members stand to gain experience of having worked as a teacher, and are on their way to time bound promotions. 4 years to jump from Senior Lecturer to Reader. Another 5 years to become a full Professor. 3 more years, and they can become post-graduate teachers. All without actually being inside their departments for any more than 2 weeks in a year!

Every time a faculty member is due for promotion (and, hopefully, a consequent salary hike), her / his services are no longer required by the institution. If it is a Senior Lecturer wanting to become a Reader - hey, we already have enough Readers! We'll just find another Senior Lecturer who accepts a lesser salary than yours! At other times, when the already present Readers in the department prove to be more expensive than the new one, they are asked to leave. Unceremoniously!

All this is but natural. Nature abhors vacuum - but nature does not mind replacing wheat with chaff.

Too late - or not?

4 months. F-O-U-R long months. And a free week or two added on.

That's how long a dental college identified on Google Maps as one tiny speck towards the northern part of India, staunchly refuses to pay salaries to its faculty.

Yet, no one protests. No one refuses to come to work. No one stops doing what they are supposed to do in exchange for their salary.

Divided we stand. United we fall. The fear of not finding another job, another college to join - that, understandably, is what terrifies most of the faculty in most dental colleges in India. As also in this aforementioned dental college. Where a word of protest from even one member of the faculty would entail replacement of the said faculty member with another, more submissive and pliant, person. At a lesser salary too.

Win-win situation for the college. For the management. And the Principal. The puppet Principal, who needs to retain that seat of power, knowing well that replacement puppet candidates for the Principal's post are equally easily available. So it is necessary to tell the faculty to forget about that unpaid salary, and harshly ask them to get back to work!

Talking of work... what work? The students in this college, like in many others, are more interested in securing their degrees at the end of the prescribed number of years of faux study. Knowledge does not matter. Skill does not matter either.

Entertainment matters. Keep the students happy. Keep them entertained. Let them play. Games. All kinds of games. Physical games. Mind games.

Concentrating on studies and the pressure of examinations causes mental depression. Suicidal tendencies.

College managements cannot take that risk. The risk of concerned parents of depressed & oppressed students pointing fingers at them, blaming them for their children's woes. That is too much of a risk.

All play and no work, and a street-smart dentist becomes Jack.

There is a flood of 'qualified' unskilled dentists and dental specialists floating around everywhere in this country, applying to dental colleges and desperately looking for work. Any kind of work. At any salary. Even without a salary. Without protest.

There may still be time to make amends. Or maybe not. Is it too late - or not?