Students condemn RCI move to start diploma/certificate course

Students condemn RCI move to start diploma/certificate course

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, Mar 14, 2012: The DK Speech and Hearing Students’ Union organized a protest against the proposed course on hearing aid dispensing by the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) in front of the DC’s office on March 14 Wednesday. A number of students from MAPS, MV Shetty College, KMC, Nitte University, and Fr. Muller College participated in the protest rally from Jyothi Circle to the DC’s office. 

 

 

 

According to the protestors, the RCI is planning to start a Diploma/Certificate Course in Hearing Aid Dispensing. They said that a 4 – 6 month certificate course or a 10-month diploma course provides qualification to give speech and hearing services and legalizes hearing aid dispensing done by hearing aid marketing agencies in India. The course will hurt the interests of audiologists trained by universities in India, owing to which the course should not be started in India, particularly in economically sensitive areas such as hearing aid dispensing, they opined. 

They also said that the RCI will create certified quacks by starting such courses, depriving poor and uneducated people of high-quality professional service. The aim of the RCI here just to raise manpower, they opined. 

They also accused the RCI of promoting hearing aid dispensers instead of protecting the interests of certified audiologists. Stating that speech and hearing colleges have mushroomed all over India, they said that the RCI has not been successful in monitoring the quality of education maintained in these colleges. Several colleges do not have clinical facilities, but the RCI is still encouraging them. So far, the RCI has not produced a single document proving that it has initiated steps to provide employment to India’s speech therapists and audiologists.