HYDERABAD: From the academic year 2019-20, all MBBS students in the country including the 3700 students in Telangana would embark on a five-and-half-year journey with a two-month 'Foundation Course' rather than straight away jumping into subjects such as anatomy, physiology as is the practice now.
According to the new syllabus, students will get practical training from first-year of the course. Currently, the regulations framed in the year 1997 are followed in conducting the course. However, the way MBBS course is taught is going to change. Medical Council of India (MCI) members have prepared a new syllabus which has significant changes when compared to old one. MCI's academic council has worked for around two-and-half-years to make changes to the syllabus according to changing global scenario and submitted it to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. A senior official from the ministry said that the new curriculum has been approved in principle by oversight committee and it will be notified soon.
"The changes are made to commensurate with needs of the country, disease burden, national health programmes and policies," said Dr Vedprakash Mishra, chairman of MCI's academic council, who has spearheaded the task of structuring new syllabus. The aim of the foundation course is to orient a medical student to MBBS programme. Classes will begin with faculty explaining history of medicine, they will teach communication, language and other skills required. "Thereafter, they will be put across MBBS curriculum which will be competency based-which is core idea of the syllabus," he said, adding that the duration of each year of the MBBS will remain the same.
Currently, the course is heavily reliant on theory classes. This is set to change. Officials from the MCI said that didactic classes will be reduced to minimum. According to new curriculum received as RTI reply by Indrajit Khandekar, professor, Clinical Forensic Medicine, MGIMS-Sewagram, two-thirds of the course shall include interactive, practical, clinical or based on group discussions. Learning process would take a problem-oriented approach; community health care activities and others which emphasize on hands on training will get a boost.
"This will help students to understand the practical intricacies of medico-legal work. Now, examinations of sexual assault cases are taught theoretically to MBBS students.That means students are passing the MBBS course without practical examination or without witnessing a single examination. This would change," said Dr Indrajit adding that the changes to the course is being made after a gap of 21 years. Currently, the regulations framed in the year 1997 are followed in conducting the MBBS course.