Mangalore: Colaco Nursing School, Students Work out Compromise
Pics by Prajwal Ukkuda
News: Times of India
Mangalore, Mar 13: A compromise has been thrashed out between the management of Colaco School of Nursing and the students, who have been protesting since four days against the management for misplacing their original marks cards.
The management has agreed to procure duplicate marks cards of all the 45 final year nursing students if it failed to locate the missing marks cards, both SSLC and PUC, by April 11. The management has also agreed to give in writing on the college letterhead, that the original marks cards were lost due to their negligence, and attach a First Information Report (FIR) copy along with it.
Students attached this condition, following apprehension that duplicate marks cards won’t be admissible during their placements in the Gulf.
The other conditions are: Return of original marks cards of first and second year students unconditionally, and give 15 per cent concession on fee to third year students, which works out to about Rs 5,200. Another additional condition is that this incident would not reflect in any harassment to students, during internals or any other way, during their study at the school.
The school has 45 students, of who 16 are from Kerala, one each from Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, and the rest from the state. The final year students will end their course in March 2009.
The Isidore Colaco Memorial Charitable Hospital Trust runs the school. Board president B Joseph Mathias Prabhu admitted the mistake. “We will do everything within our limits to trace the lost marks cards. If not, we will take the responsibility of getting the duplicates from the respective education boards,’’ he said.
Prabhu said that till three months ago, they were under the impression that the marks cards were with the Karnataka Nursing Council. “But when a student wanted to discontinue her studies and wanted the originals back, we realized the folly. We lodged a complaint with the police, regarding the missing marks cards.’’
Paul George, final year general nursing and midwifery student at the school, who represented the students, said they wanted full fee concession of Rs 35,000 for the final year students in lieu of original marks cards, but that was not accepted by the management. He said the management had agreed to give attendance for the days they were on strike.
The students will return to classes on March 24, after their holidays, which start from Thursday. The compromise was worked out by mediators Rajan D’Souza, chartered accountant, Colaco Trust, advocates Dominic George and P P Kurien, witnesses Stany Alvares, J Louis Pinto, Sudhir and student witness Liji Anna Alex.