As the country celebrates Teachers’ Day in memory of India’s second President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the Psychiatry Teachers’ Forum of Indian Psychiatry Society (IPS) has sought to draw attention on the need for protecting and promoting the profession of medical college teachers.
Chairperson of the Psychiatry Teachers’ Forum of IPS Dr. Kishor M., who is also Professor and Head of the Department of Psychiatry at JSS Medical College and Hospital Mysuru, said the focus of all activities related to Teachers’ Day every year is primary and high school teachers. But, there is a comparatively smaller, but sacred profession of medical college teachers that is in dire need of attention in India.
The medical college lecturers complete their MBBS and post-graduation before pursuing a career in teaching medical students, who are not only future doctors, but also the foundation of healthcare services in India. The right kind of training is crucial for India’s healthcare services.
With introduction of competency-based medical education in 2019 by the National Medical Commission (NMC), the training of medical students is intensive and time-consuming while also requiring greater involvement and passion by teachers. “These teaching-learning processes cannot be replaced even with the best videos or the standard textbooks,” Dr. Kishor said.
Pointing to the phenomenal increase in medical colleges in India, he said there are more than 700 medical colleges in India at present with an annual intake of over 1,00,000 MBBS students and 80,000 post-graduates, including those in super specialty. “These numbers roughly translate to over 7.5 lakh medical students pursuing under-graduate or post-graduate courses at any given point in India,” he said.
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While the intake of students to medical colleges has increased substantially over the last few years, there has been no corresponding increase in the number of teachers.
“The intake in medical colleges went up from 150 to 250 per year in the last couple of years, but the number of teachers has remained the same,” he said adding that the number of medical college teachers in India remains under one lakh, he claimed.
The National Medical Commission did not consider a proportionate increase in number of teachers.
Moreover, while the cost of living has multiplied in the last decade, the pay scale of medical college teachers has remained unchanged in a majority of the medical colleges.
Though private practice is an option, Dr. Kishor pointed out that they will end up compromising on the quality time required to train budding doctors. The consequences of poor training on future doctors is something that society cannot afford.
“So, the question is, how do we save this dwindling number of passionate medical college teachers who have the zeal to train upcoming doctors?”
He claimed that a vast majority of medical college teachers in India are not assured of pension for their financial security once they retire. “They have to start from scratch to build their practice, which is near impossible,” he said.
He wants the National Medical Commission to come up with a strategy to ensure that passionate medical teachers are rewarded.
