Physiotherapy students
Bangladesh Physiotherapy Students' Association organised a hunger strike for the third time. They want establishment of Bangladesh College of Physiotherapy. Their demand is based on sound logic. In many developing countries, physiotherapy is now considered to be a very important subject. In Canada, entry-level physiotherapy education is offered in 13 universities. Some of these university programmes are at the masters level, meaning that applicants must have already completed an undergraduate degree prior to applying, all of them are slated to be at the post-graduation level by 2010. Many universities also offer graduate programmes in physiotherapy, rehabilitation, or related disciplines at the post graduation or doctoral level. Even in our neighbouring country i.e. India, universities offer undergraduate programmes of physiotherapy with four years of academic and clinical programme and 6 months of compulsory internship. There are over 250 colleges offering undergraduate programmes in physiotherapy (BPT) and more than 50 colleges are offering master's degree in physiotherapy (MPT) with 2 years' duration. PhD in physiotherapy is offered in some universities in the states like Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
We cannot forget the glorious contribution of the physiotherapists immediately after the liberation war of 1971. There was a huge demand for the treatment like physiotherapy. Thousands of war-wounded freedom fighters were admitted for treatment in different hospitals with an unprecedented demand for physiotherapy treatment. To cope with the crisis of physiotherapists, Dr. R. J. Grast, the then director of RIHD, introduced the graduate course. It must be noted that today the physiotherapists of Bangladesh are working throughout the world with great reputation. At the same time, physiotherapy students from UK, Canada, Netherlands come to our country for their research.
I hope the issue will receive due attention from the authorities concerned.
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