Attendance norms in undergraduate medical education in India: Issue worth considering?

Abstract

Medical education has been recognized as a challenging professional course as a lot is expected from the medical students during their training period. An extensive search of all materials related to the topic was carried out in the PubMed search engine and National Medical Council Website, and a total of 15 studies similar to the current study objectives were selected based on the suitability with the current review objectives. In order to ensure that students actively participate in their learning and eventually progress from one professional year to the next one, the regulatory body has formulated eligibility criteria for the students to appear in summative assessments. Although attendance policy tends to have a significant influence on reducing the unnecessary absenteeism in the class, it cannot be conclusively said that the best learning occurs while students are physically attending the class. A student can be asked to mandatory attend those sessions wherein the content cannot be perfected by reading material. To conclude, the clause of meeting attendance norms for being eligible for the summative assessment is a must in many ways to ensure that students remain involved in their learning process. However, there is a definite scope to modify the attendance norms depending on the type of sessions and whether the proposed knowledge or skills can be acquired within the four walls of a class or by the students on their own.