PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council recently awarded the Khyber Girls Medical College (KGMC) the first position in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and fifth in Pakistan for excellence and quality of education. The PMDC also ranked the premier medical institution, Khyber Medical College (KMC), on the sixth number in the province.
KGMC is the first and lone public sector girls’ medical college in the province. The six-party Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) government had established the college in 2003 and wanted to allow girls who prefer to get medical education in a separate institution rather than in a co-education system. A senior ophthalmologist, Prof Dr Zia ul Islam, was its first Project Director and Founder Principal.
Sources reported that Prof Zia ul Islam had started the college from a single room located in the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) building. Soon enough, he formed his team and inaugurated the college with a total of 50 students.
It was in May 2019, when the PMDC announced it would inspect all medical and dental colleges in the country to inform them about the new criteria and inspect their existing facilities. When the PMDC team visited the KGMC in May, certain issues were identified during the initial inspection.
The college’s administration overcame the deficiencies to save the college from being derecognized. The hard work of the Board of Governors, college administration, and faculty not only saved the college from de-recognition but got it a prominent position among the top medical institutions of the country. The KGMC secured 92% marks during the PMDC inspection.
However, there was bad news as well for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and, particularly, those who studied in Khyber Medical College as this premier institution was ranked sixth in number in the province. It managed to get 77% marks during the PMDC inspection.
Private medical colleges such as Peshawar Medical College (PMC) that obtained 89% marks, Rehman Medical College (RMC), 85% marks, Frontier Medical College (FMC), 84% marks, and Northwest Medical College (NMC), 77% marks, scored better than the KMC, which is used to be known as the mother institution of medical education in the KPK.
Interestingly, the graduates of KMC are the ones who established these private medical colleges. “It is very painful news for most of the KMC graduates. The government should take it seriously and constitute a high-level independent committee to probe the Board of Governors and other relevant circles for this huge loss to the institution,” said a graduate of the KMC.
Ayub Medical College secured 72% marks, Pak International Medical College scored 67%, while KMU Institute of Medical Sciences, Kohat, got 66% marks only.
Four out of eight medical colleges, which scored either less than 60% marks or failed lacking mandatory requirement, are the public sector medical colleges. They are Bacha Khan Medical College (BKMC) Mardan, Nowshera Medical College (NMC), Saidu Medical College, Swat, Bannu Medical College, and Gomal Medical College Dera Ismail Khan.
Prof Dr Ziaul Islam had also established the BKMC and its students used to clinch top positions in examinations conducted by the Khyber Medical University (KMU). After the college was handed over to the Board of Governors, chaired by Dr Syed Fazle Hadi since 2015, the college lost its standard.
In four years, the board could not complete the remaining civil work, and the college is still located in the building of the Mardan Medical Complex (MMC).
Additionally, most of the faculty members had quit and joined other institutions due to various reasons. Other medical colleges that failed the PMDC criteria include Kabir Medical College, Razi Medical College, and Women Medical College.