No Summer Break for Medical Students Despite Heatwave

Students of medicine and dentistry will carry on with their lectures this year without summer holidays in Pakistan, even when the country experienced a heatwave, which broke all temperature records with the mercury rising to over 45 C (113 F) in many cities, including Lahore, Karachi and Multan.

Because of long admissions and administrative problems, the classes of the 2024-2025 session did not start till April. This tightened schedule has not been very accommodative of the traditional summer vacations and majority of the students have been rewarded with a mere 7 day holiday in July or not. There are institutions where students have been informed that there will be no summer vacation this year.

Second and third-year students are especially badly affected given that they are already adapting to the new modules of MBBS curriculum that had been introduced this year. Several students complain that this accelerated routine, paired with the absence of a real break is catching up with them physically and mentally. A third-year student at King Edward Medical University (who also requested anonymity) said: “We are expected to give our best but the system is burning us out.

To make their lives more miserable, students staying in hostels complain that there is no air conditioning or it is often not working. The current heatwave has made hostel rooms almost inhabitable. The situation is now being described as “we are learning medicine and yet we are being compelled to live in health-threatening conditions.” by a second-year dental student in Karachi. Other students have even been sleeping in the common rooms or libraries in the quest to find cool environments.

This has created some bad blood with many citing that it is only medical and dental students who are being exposed to such conditions when students in other courses still enjoy the normal summer vacations. Through press releases and protests, the groups of students have urged the university administrations and Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) to review the academic schedule and focus on the welfare of the students.