NEW DELHI: A year after nearly 6,000 non-medical teachers in medical colleges knocked at the door of Union health ministry fearing job crisis as the National Medical Commission reduced the ceiling for their appointment, the government is yet to take a view on the matter.
While teachers of clinical subjects in medical colleges are always doctors with MBBS and MS/MD degrees, there are others in the non-clinical subjects with medical MSc or PhDs who are not doctors but their designations range from tutor to professor and even head of departments.
Last year, in the regulations released by the medical education regulator, the permissible intake of non-medical faculty had come down from 30% to 15% in anatomy and physiology, from 50% to 15% in biochemistry, and from 30% to 0% in microbiology and pharmacology.
Opposing this, the National MSc Medical Teachers Association (NMMTA), the body representing non medical teachers, had pleaded with the health ministry to get the decision changed in order to address faculty crisis in institution as well as to help the existing teachers.
The ministry, however, seems to have turned a blind eye to their petition. Association members pointed out that the Teachers Eligibility and Qualifications guidelines of the previous regulator, Medical Council of India, allowed higher intakes of non-medical teachers to teach pre and para clinical subjects.
Sridhar Rao, president of NMMTA, pointed out that while there has been an increase in MD seats in the non-clinical subjects, 40-50% of them remain vacant each year, which would only mean that the faculty shortage is likely to continue. “The shortages are more pronounced in the colleges located in rural, remote or hilly areas where the availability of medical teachers is generally poor,” he added.
He also said that while rejecting a prior proposal to do away with the provision of appointing MSc/PhD teachers, the Board of Governors in supersession of the MCI in January, 2020 had cited the shortage of faculty in institutions.