The National Medical Commission (NMC) has decided to significantly reduce the percentage of non-medical teachers in medical colleges after first proposing to allow up to 30% non-MBBS teachers to teach several preclinical subjects.
The non-medical teachers have been taken by surprise over the U-turn taken by the NMC. Some sections of the medical teachers have been clamoring for the elimination of the scientists from the medical colleges.
In its recent gazetted notification titled Minimum Requirements for Annual M.B.B.S. Admissions Regulations, 2020, the percentage of non-medical teachers in the three pre-clinical specialties of Anatomy, Biochemistry, and Physiology have been halved from 30 to 15% whereas the non-medical teachers have been completely eliminated from the para-clinical specialties of Pharmacology and Microbiology.
The non-medical teachers, who are scientists with medical M.Sc/Ph.D. qualifications in these specialties are agitated by this decision. The NMC was expected to adopt the guidelines from the erstwhile MCI.
“The appointment of non-medical teachers to teach the non-clinical subjects is neither new nor unique to India”, said Dr. Shridhar Rao, President of the National M.Sc Medical Teachers’ Association (NMMTA).
“It is a widespread practice across several countries to employ scientists as teachers in medical colleges. The scientists’ community feels that the government must have a nuanced policy on the utility and conduct of Medical M.Sc courses with the formation of a council to regulate the courses and register the members providing professional services in diagnostic laboratories,” Dr. Rao added.
- Controversy Over The Appointment Of Non-Medical Teachers
”This controversy is not new. In 2018, the MCI made a proposal to halve and halt the appointment of non-medical teachers. The board of governors had junked this proposal bringing relief to thousands of scientists. But this bogey has come back to haunt them. The scientists feel that despite being in the system for several decades, their voices are not heard,” Arjun Maitra, Secretary, NMMTA.
“We never had a representation in the MCI, nor do we have one in the NMC. We are a minority but there are no checks in place to protect the interests of the minorities. Our pleas are often ignored and we are treated as non-existing entities”, added Maitra.
“Like our medical colleagues, we too have undergone the mandatory training on the implementation of the new competency-based curriculum and we are capable and confident of imparting the teaching as envisaged by the NMC” stated Dr. Shridhar.
“Instead of shunting us out, there must be more efforts to train and integrate us. We can consult the clinical colleagues for inputs on the horizontal and vertical integrations”, he added.
“Any scientific discipline grows when different backgrounds contribute. It would be in the best interest of medical education to have faculties from diverse backgrounds. Let the system have the best of both”, added Dr. Rao.
“We request the government to take note of our precarious position, safeguard our interests and provide us justice by reinstating the previous MCI norms”, said Dr. Rao with optimism.
- No clarity from the NMC
While the sources in the commission, meanwhile, clarified that the new norms will guide the new appointments but will not have a direct impact on those already employed.
Despite this, there is fear and uncertainty among the community of non-medical teachers as they fear that these guidelines would be illegally extended to the existing medical colleges.
There is no clarity from the NMC over its application. Although the MCI collected data of every teacher from all the affiliated medical colleges, it has no data on the number of non-medical teachers.
It is estimated that there could be 4000-5000 non-medical teachers working under the designations ranging from Professors & HOD to Tutors.
To an unstarred question posed in the Lok Sabha in 2018, “whether thousands of non-medical teachers who are already working in medical colleges are facing any threat to their jobs”, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, the minister of state in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had replied, “does not arise”. The scientists’ community wonders if the ministry intends to remain true to its words.
