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| Volume 10 |Issue 23 | June 17, 2011 | |
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Letters Aggressive promotion of drugs
In their aggressive promotion of pharmaceutical drugs the country's medical representatives invade hospitals during busy working hours in violation of the marketing code and medical ethics. In public hospitals we found many medical representatives talking to doctors in their rooms, while patients wait outside. Public hospital doctors usually see patients from 8:00am to 2:30pm. Medical representatives are allowed to visit doctors when they are not busy with patients, and most hospitals have a specific time and date set for the drug promoters. But medicine promoters are seen roaming hospital corridors and invading doctors' chambers throughout the working day, even during hours when doctors are supposed to take care of patients. The representatives even check patients' prescriptions to see whether doctors prescribe the drugs manufactured by their companies, in violation of what some experts say are medical ethics. Besides talking to doctors about their new drugs, their efficacy and use, the promoters offer gifts, including foreign trips, to the doctors. There are many who take them up on their bribes. Medical representatives encourage doctors to prescribe unnecessary drugs just to serve these pharmaceutical companies. Promoters should only be allowed to see doctors during their (the doctors') free time. This culture needs to stop. Mohammed Jashim Uddin The coaching trouble Students wanting to get into universities are preparing themselves by getting enrolled into coaching centres. One cannot really object to this culture as these centres actually do help students to pass their admission tests. But regretfully these centres have become extremely commercial and charging unimaginably high tuition fees. Moreover, many of these coaching centres are fake or below standard. Being drawn in by their exaggerated advertisements, students are flocking to them. These low standard coaching centres are multiplying day by day and thus the probability of student's suffering is also increasing. So my request to the proper authorities is that they take steps against coaching centres which do not provide quality service as they should. Mahmudul Hasan Hemal Give Us Some Attention Please In our country those who are in positions of power, tend to focus their attention solely on improving education at the primary, secondary and higher secondary levels. Various members of the ruling party and even the Education Minister have overlooked the plight of those of us who are studying at the NU (National University). Even in the recent budget 2011-12, our Finance Minister's emphasis was only on the primary and secondary level education systems. Our question is what is the point then of having a National University for higher education? Why do we have to complete BA, BSS and other courses required to complete our education? Is it only to harass thousands of parents and students and get money out of us? We are hard working students who wish to do well in life by obtaining a good education. Three years have passed since being admitted in the honours course, but till date we have not received our first year results. We have no idea how long it will take for us to get our results. There are a great number of students who are studying in the NU and most come from middle class families. It is important for these students to finish their education, obtain a degree and get a job to help support their families. It is not possible for our parents to keep supporting us until we finally graduate. We resort to tutoring younger children and that becomes our only source of income but this too is a rarely available opportunity. Relatives, friends and well-wishers are asking us when we will graduate. We don't have an answer. So, we ask the Honorable Prime Minister, Education Minister and the authority of NU to please let us be free from this corrosive session jam, and take our exams and publish our results on time like you are supposed to so that we can get on with our lives. Bipul K Debnath, Hassan and Pritish Primary Education: Facts behind the facts
The Primary Education systems in our country failed to progress well as we as a nation fail to understand the necessity of education. The fact is that we are not aware, poverty stricken and don't want to face reality. The process is very hard and full of reality. A chain of actions is involved and one is connected with the other. UNICEF has created opportunity and various ways to materialise a number of programmes. Yet they have failed to get to the target. Our high-level officers have nothing to do except grab the lucrative posts. They want to control the field officers having no real idea of how to go about it. The field officers, meanwhile, will have to go through the real troubles and problems. As for example, once we were asked to report within 24 hours about flood situation of a district, say Tangail district. We obeyed that order, that was the main condition of the service. Later I had to visit a school located in the remote corner of the district. I wondered that if we had to spend one whole day to return home then how was it possible to report that report covering all the schools of the district. Was there any magic lamp for the said purpose? Or was it something else..., the story that can't be said. We fix targets. But where are the experts and experienced manpower? What did we want? And what was the reality? Education and education alone should be and must be undertaken by the education department and solely by school teachers. They must not be engaged for any other work except teaching. We have vast idle manpower. We should engage them for all those accessory works. If you see no possibility, then it is hardly possible to materialise the cent percent compulsory education of children. Education for all will remain merely a slogan. Dr Awlad Hossain Submission Guideline: Letters to the Editor, Star Diary and Write to Mita, with the writer's name and address, should be within 200 words. All articles should be within 1,200 words. A cover letter is not necessary, but every write-up should include the writer's name, phone number and email address (if any). While The Star welcomes unsolicited articles and photographs, it cannot accept the responsibility of their loss or damage. The Star does not return unsolicited articles and photos. Response time for unsolicited write-ups ranges from three weeks to two months. All articles submitted are subject to editing for reasons of space and clarity.
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