Kathmandu, February 10:

As the government stood by its decision not to allow students studying MBBS in China to undertake pre-internship in Nepal, parents of the students today staged a protest against the government demanding their children be allowed to undertake ‘pre-internship’ in Nepal. They have been staging a sit-in on the premises of the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) from January 17, 2007 seeking continuity to the pre-internship for the MBBS final year students.

Around 300 students, who are in their final year of MBBS course in China, will be arriving Nepal by the end of February. Dr Bishnu Pandit, acting secretary at the Ministry of Health and Population, said the ‘pre-internship’ is a component of the course which the colleges concerned should conduct.

The government had, on August 9, 2007, decided not to allow foreign students ‘pre-internship’ in any government hospitals in Nepal. “We stick to it and request them to abide by it,” Dr Pandit said.

However, the agitating parents are insisting the government should allow their children to undertake ‘pre-internship’ in Nepal. “The decision is not fair,” said Pushpa Ratna Shakya, coordinator of the Parents’ Group. He said the government instead should have specified time to be barred.

The students studying in China are required to undertake ‘clinical clerkship’ that the parents call ‘pre-internship’, for one year in the fifth year of the course in China. The course in Nepal and other South Asian countries has it that students should study for four-and-a-half years and undertake one-year internship.

Chinese universities have allowed students from Nepal and Mauritius to undertake clerkship in their own countries, keeping in mind their language problems. Even Nepali parents admit this fact. “We want our children to be with us. Money also matters,” says one of the parents. The course costs about $ 2,000 in China; the same can be completed in Nepal for Rs 50,000.