THE future of more than 300 students of Dow Dental College hangs in the balance for no fault on their part.

The college was set up in 2012 under the auspices of Dow University of Health Sciences. The first batch comprising 40 students passed out in 2017 and completed their house job in May 2018. A second batch of 54 students passed out in 2018, and is undergoing their residency. Four more batches are in various stages of orthodontics education.

The world of these young dentists and orthodontics education students has come crashing down because the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council has not given recognition to the DDC.

Since 2013, the official website of DUHS — the parent institution of DDC has been saying that the DDC is registered with the PMDC. It came as a rude shock to the DDC graduates and students that their alma mater was not registered with the PMDC whereas they had paid the DDC for their individual PMDC registration.

The lack of PMDC registration will put a stop to their further studies and careers. The first two DDC students’ batches did indeed receive Student Registration Certificates while from the third batch onward the PMDC has not given SRCs to students.

The DDC authorities all this while were intentionally vague about the institution’s PMDC registration and dragged their feet about the issue for so long that the first batch students only realised their predicament long after they graduated. Almost five months have elapsed since the first batch completed their house job and they have still not received their house job certificates.

We request the chancellor and the Sindh government authorities to resolve the DDC’s PMDC registration issue immediately to save the careers of 300 dentists.

Dow Dental College students

Karachi

Published in Dawn, October 21st , 2018